Spirit of the Cards
by soultaker78
Summary: postPP. Danny has never taken an interest in duel monsters before, but that's going to change when an old enemy unleashes an ancient evil.
1. Chapter 1

It was night, and Danny was doing a patrol of the city while thinking about all that had happened in the several weeks since he saved the world from the disasteroid and revealed his identity. Tucker had served a very brief period as town mayor before the city council deposed him because they didn't want a teenager running the town.

In the past several days, a number of people in Amity Park and the surrounding area had gone into comas for unknown reasons. Although the victims were medically fine, doctors were unable to recisitate them. Among the stricken was Valerie, who Danny had been able to patch things up with rather easily after explaining his side of their conflict.

While Danny was going over these thoughts, an enemy was observing him from a safe spot. _This is perfect, _Johnny 13 thought to himself as he watched his target. _I know the boss man said to not go after the ghost boy so that he wouldn't get a chance to muck up our plans until it's too late, but I'll never get an opportunity this good to finally take him out._

Johnny 13 revved his motorcycle and accelerated towards Danny. He was planning to eliminate the ghost boy with powers granted to him by his new employer. But before he could strike, time came to a halt.

Clockwork emerged from a portal right next to Danny after stopping time. He then brought out a time medallion and put it around Danny's neck.

Danny felt disoriented as he was brought out of stillness and looked around him. "Clockwork," Danny said upon spotting the temporal ghost. "What are you doing here?"

"I just saved you," Clockwork said, then motioned his staff toward the still frozen Johnny.

"Not that I don't appreciate the assist," Danny said. "But I'm pretty sure I could take him even if he got in a lucky hit."

"Johnny's not exactly the same as last you remember him."

"What do you mean?"

"It's a long story, Danny," Clockwork said as he began twirling his staff and produced an image a desert temple. "It all began 5,000 years ago, in Egypt. There were individuals who were able to summon monsters from another dimension by using powerful shadow magic. the monsters would then fight for them."

The image changed to two people wearing white clothes that had monsters standing in front of them. The two people were also wearing large, gold objects on their arms that had three parts that almost looked like wings.

"These contests were called shadow games, but that's another story," Clockwork said, then changed the image so that it displayed a desert village at night. There was a large, black dragon soaring through the sky and breathing dark fire on the buildings below.

"But there was one creature that could not be controlled by the shadow magic wielders," Clockwork continued. "It was called the Chaos Emperor Dragon, and it sought to destroy the entire world. Fortunately, all the shadow wielders banded together to fight back."

The image changed once more. It showed dozens of the shadow wielders summoning their monsters to attack the Chaos Emperor Dragon. "The battle lasted many days without stop," the temporal ghost said. "Eventually, the shadow wielders drove back the evil creature, but after taking heavy causalities. But despite their valiant efforts, the Chaos Emperor Dragon wasn't destroyed: it simply retreated."

The image now showed a battle damaged Chaos Emperor Dragon going through some kind of inter dimensional portal. The portal lead to the ghost zone. "In its haste to escape, he arrived in a remote region of the ghost zone instead of his intended destination," Clockwork explained. "Once there, it entered a state of hibernation due to the injuries it received in battle. And it stayed that way until a few days ago, where one of your old enemies found it."

Now the image displayed a picture of prince Aragon, the tyrannical, dragonic and technophobic brother of Dora that he dethroned. "What does he have to do with this?" Danny asked.

"I'm glad you asked," Clockwork said. "After you defeated him, he was exiled from his home. Since then, he's been wondering the ghost zone in search of a way to reclaim his power. And he found it."

The image changed to Aragon standing in front of the sleeping dragon. The dethroned prince touched the dragon, which caused a bright light to shine. When the light faded, Aragon had an object shaped like a duel disk on his right arm that a deck in the appropriate slot.

"Why is he wearing a duel disk?" Danny asked. While he did not participate in the game of duel monsters, he was aware of it. He never took up the game because he was too busy with fighting ghosts, but Sam and Tucker played.

"Because the Chaos Emperor Dragon bestowed shadow magic upon Aragon," Clockwork said, "and the Duel Monsters trading card game is the current incarnation of the ancient shadow games."

"Okay," Danny said as he put his hand on his forehead. "How exactly can a trading card game and ancient Egyptian mysticism be connected?"

"That is also a long story. The short version is that Duel Monsters is based on the shadow games. But to get back on track, when Aragon made contact with the Chaos Emperor Dragon, the former prince was brain washed by the dragon. Since then, Aragon has spread the control and shadow magic to other enemies of yours: like Johnny here."

With that, Danny took a closer look at the frozen form of Johnny 13, and noticed that he had a duel disk on his arm that was loaded with a deck. "If I hadn't intervened, he would have extracted your soul out of your body," Clockwork continued.

"Say what now?" Danny asked as he quirked an eyebrow in curiosity.

"That's its plan, Danny. All the brain washed ghosts have been using their shadow magic to take people's souls and send them to the Chaos Emperor Dragon so it can recover its strength. But I have a way for you to fight back," Clockwork said, then materialized some kind of black amulet with a clasp in front of him. "Put this on your right arm."

Danny did as he was instructed and put the clasps around his right arm. This caused a black ring of energy (similar to the ones that appeared when he transformed) to travel horizontally across his body and changing his appearance. His hair was now black with white tips, and he was wearing black boots, pants and a shirt with a black trench coat and a silver stylized D emblem for a belt buckle. As he got his new look, a great deal of information regarding Duel Monsters was sent into his brain.

Once the apparel transformation and information download were complete, Danny looked at himself at wondered what just happened. "What's with the new threads and why do I suddenly know what a field spell is?" he asked.

"The amulet is a special artifact that allows the wearer to participate in any incarnation of the shadow games," Clockwork explained. "It gave you the knowledge to play Duel Monsters and imbued you with shadow magic abilities. As for the clothes, that's a side effect."

Danny took a look at the amulet and noticed that it had changed to resemble a duel disk with a deck in it. He took the deck out and looked through it. It had a lot of monsters called Destiny Heroes.

"Even with that deck and shadow magic, you might not be able to handle this threat by yourself," Clockwork continued, then brought forth six other amulets like the one Danny had on: a pink one, a green one, a purple one, a blue one, a white one and a red one. "Give these to people who can help you," the temporal ghost said.

"Thanks Clockword," Danny said as he placed the extra amulets in the pockets on the inside of his new trench coat.

"Don't thank me yet," Clockwork said with a mischievous grin. "Time in," he said as he touched his staff and resumed the movement time before vanishing. And with that, Johnny resumed his charge.

When Johnny approached Danny, there was a flash of light and Johnny was violently repelled. "What the hell was that?" Johnny asked. "I should have taken your soul, no problem."

"Nice try Johnny, but I know what you're up to," Danny said. "If you want my soul, you'll have to challenge me for it in a shadow game."

"Gladly," Johnny said as got off his motorcycle and materialized the arms of his duel disk.

"Let's duel," they both said in unison.

Author's notes: This isn't a crossover, more like a Yugioh plot with the DP cast. And I know that the plot seems derivative of the Oricalcos arc, but it's the best I could come up with. The duels will play out like a mix of anime rules and real TCG rules.


	2. Chapter 2

"I'll start things off," Johnny said as he drew a card. "I summon Insect Knight in attack mode (ATK 1900)," he said and a humanoid brown bug with a sword and shield appeared.

"My turn," Danny said as he drew. "I play a monster face down."

"Looks like you're not off to a good start," Johnny said, then drew. "I summon Vorse Raider (ATK 1900)," he said and a black beast wearing a brown vest and wielding a staff with a curved blade. "Vorse Raider, attack his defense monster," Johnny said.

Vorse Raider charged into battle and attacked, revealing Danny's face down monster to be Destiny Hero Defender (DEF 2700). This monster looked like a large man wearing a suit of gray armor, standing in a defensive stance. Vorse Raider swung its blade at Defender, but Danny's monster remained. The failed attack caused Johnny's life points to drop down to 3200.

"Looks like I'm doing better than you thought," Danny taunted. _Not bad for my first duel, _he thought. He then drew from his deck. _Now to keep it up._

"I sacrifice Defender to summon Destiny Hero Double Dude (ATK 1000)," he said as Defender disappeared and was replaced by a man in a dark suit with a cane.

"Is that weak monster supposed to scare me?" Johnny responded.

"He will when I play this," Danny said and placed a card in the special slot allocated for field spells. This caused many silhouettes of buildings to rise up around them. "Welcome to the Dark City. Here, all my Destiny Heroes gain a 1000 points when they attack a stronger monster. Like this: Double Dude, attack," Danny ordered, and Double Dude destroyed Insect Knight with his cane.

"And thanks to Double Dude's special effect, I attack again," Danny continued, and Double Dude transformed into a muscular version of himself with a wild mane of white hair and no shirt. The transformed Double Dude destroyed Vorse Raider with a powerful punch, then turned back into his suited form and returned to being right in front of Danny. The two battles had dropped Johnny's life points to 3000.

"You're going to pay for that," Johnny said angrily, not pleased with the duel so far. He drew and smirked. "I play the equip spell Nitro Unit," he said, and harness with a bomb attached appeared on Double Dude.

"What's that supposed to do?" Danny asked, noticing that the spell had no effect upon activation.

"You'll find out soon enough, but for now I summon Mad Dog of Darkness," Johnny said, and a big, rabid looking brown dog manifested. "Attack," Johnny ordered, making the Mad Dog pounce on the suited warrior. The attack caused the bomb on Double Dude to detonate, causing a big explosion. The damage from the battle made Danny's life points decrease to 3100.

"And since your monster was equipped with Nitro Unit when it was destroyed," Johnny continued, "you now take damage equal to your monster's attack strength," and with that, Danny's life points further decreased to 2100.

"Enjoy the lead while you have it, because you won't have it for long," Danny declared and drew. "Now Double Dude's other effect activates. I now get two Double Dude Tokens (ATK 1000)," Danny explained and two monsters that looked exactly like Double Dude showed up.

"I summon Destiny Hero Diamond Dude (ATK 1400)," Danny continued, bringing forth a man wearing a blue cape and big diamond crystals on his arms and back. "I now activate Diamond Dude's special effect. I take a look at the top card of my deck," he said, and revealed it to be the Mystic Tomato monster card. "Since this isn't a normal spell card, it goes to the bottom of my deck."

Danny relocated the card, then had Diamond Dude attack Mad Dog Of Darkness. The empowered Diamond Dude destroyed Mad Dog and reduced Johnny's life points to 2500. Then he had the Double Dude Tokens attack Johnny directly, leaving the brain washed ghost with only 500 life points.

"If you think that that'll be enough to make me give up, guess again," Johnny said angrily and drew. "I play Pot Of Greed. This allows me to draw two more cards," he said then drew. "Now I play the spell Revival of Dokurorider. I discard Beast of Talwar, and can now summon Dokurorider (ATK 1900)."

Johnny's new monster looked like a man in blue wearing a horned helmet. He was riding a gray motorcycle that had a bird's skull for the front and a big front tire with spikes on it.

"I also summon Chaos Rider Gustaph (ATK 1400)," Johnny said, and a humanoid demon with green skin on a red motorcycle wielding a spear appeared. "I activate his special effect: I remove two spells from my graveyard and Gustaph's attack points increase by 600."

Johnny then had Gustaph attack one of the Double Dude tokens. Gustaph slashed the token with his spear and brought Danny's life points down to 1100. Then he ordered Dokurorider to destroy the other token, which Dokurorider did by running it over. This decreased Danny's life points to 200.

"And for good measure," Johnny continued, "I play Mystical Space Typhoon and destroy your Dark City." This caused a gust of wind to appear that made the Dark City buildings recede and disappear.

_This is not good, _Danny thought as he reviewed his situation. _I'm down to my last couple life points and can't power up my Destiny Heroes anymore. But if I gave every time things got hard for me, there wouldn't be much left of Amity Park now._

"I draw," Danny said with a look of determination. He looked at his hand and knew that he had a way to win the duel. "I play The Warrior Returning Alive. This let's me take a warrior monster in my graveyard and add it to my hand. And I choose Destiny Hero Defender," Danny said and added the monster to his hand. "I now summon Defender in attack mode (ATK 100)."

"Ha," Johnny said tauntingly. "Is that monster supposed to scare me?"

"It will once I play this," Danny said and showed the card he had just drawn to Johnny. "The Shield And Sword spell card. This card exchanges all monsters' attack and defense points for one turn."

Danny played the card and its effect activated. Defender's attack points became 2700, Diamond Dude's became 1600, Dokurorider's became 1850 and Gustaph's became 1500. Danny had Defender attack Gustaph and the armored Destiny Hero destroyed the Chaos Rider with a powerful punch that inflicted enough damage to make Johnny's life points hit 0.

"You've beaten me, but even in defeat I get to serve my master," Johnny said cryptically.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked, then noticed that Johnny seemed to be evaporating.

"The terms of the shadow game we just played were that the loser's soul would be sent to the Chaos Emperor Dragon. You better enjoy this victory while you can, because I wasn't its only soul collector. You've won this battle, but you won't win the war."

And with that, Johnny 13 completely evaporated. Danny was not at all phased by the biker ghost's remark, confident that he would get through this crisis like he had so many before.

--

"And that's where we stand," Danny said to Jazz, Sam and Tucker after returning to his home and explaining the current situation. Once home, he had taken off his amulet which reverted him to his normal clothes.

"Oh man," Tucker said. "Just when I thought Duel Monsters couldn't get any cooler, it turns out that it has ties to ancient Egyptian mysticism."

"Tucker, this is serious," Sam said.

"I know that," he said. "I'm just remarking on how cool it is."

"Moving on," Danny said, then placed the other amulets in front of the group. "I need each of you to put one of these on."

"I'd like to help Danny," Jazz said, "but I don't have any experience with Duel Monsters."

"Not a problem Jazz," Danny said. "The amulet will instantly give you all the knowledge you need to play the game."

"In that case, I'll take the blue one," Jazz said as she picked up the blue amulet and placed it on her right arm. A large blue ring of energy traveled across her body. When it completed it's course, she was dressed in what looked like a blue loincloth and matching bra. "What the..." Jazz said while examining her new look. "While do I look like a cave girl?" Jazz then looked at her deck and saw it was full of dinosaur monsters. "Now the clothes make sense."

"My turn," Sam said as she grabbed the purple amulet and put it on. A purple ring of energy went over her body and Sam was now wearing a form fitting purple dress. In addition, her skin was much paler and she had a pair of fangs. "Nice," she said upon looking over her new outfit. She looked through her deck and found that it contained many fiend type monsters, including Dark World monsters. "Now that's what I'm talking about."

Tucker took the green amulet and put it on. A green ring of energy traveled over him, dressing him in a green jumpsuit with a gold diamond on his chest. He went through his deck and saw that it was full of Elemental Heroes. "Sweet," he said.

"Now we need to find people to use the other three amulets," Danny said. "It would probably be best if we picked people who are good at Duel Monsters. Sam, Tucker: you guys know anybody who can help us?"

"Unfortunately, most of the really skilled duelists I know are in the hospital," Tucker said. "They must have gotten their souls taken. But I do know two people who are really good and still have their souls."

"Who?"

"Star and Kwan."

"That could be a problem," Sam said. "We're not exactly on good terms with them. And even if they did want to join us, that still leaves one amulet behind."

"We should still try to convince them," Danny said. "And they might know someone who can use the remaining amulet."


	3. Chapter 3

The next day at school, Danny approached Star and Kwan. He said that he needed their help with something, but the blond bimbo and the asian jock were smart enough to know that if Danny was in trouble, they probably shouldn't get involved. That's when Danny got an idea to persuade them.

He challenged Star and Kwan to a duel. If he won, they'd help him and his friends. If they won, he'd drop the subject. And if they refused the challenge, he'd just keep bugging them until they caved in. Star and Kwan accepted the challenge.

After school, Star, Kwan and all of Danny's group gathered in the park. Danny had taken his deck out of the amulet and borrowed Sam's duel disk. "So how's this going to work?" Kwan asked.

"Tucker and I will face you in a two on two duel," Danny said. "Each team will share 8000 life points. As for turn order, I'll let you decide."

"It will go me, Foley, Star, you and back to me," Kwan said.

"Sounds good," Danny said as he activated his duel disk. The others activated their own in turn. All the participants drew their opening hands and the duel was under way.

"All right," Kwan said as he drew. "I play Mausoleum Of The Emperor," Kwan said as he placed a field spell in special slot. This made a an ancient looking building appear next to the group. "With this spell, I can pay 500 life points instead of tributing a monster to summon a high level monster from my hand. So I play 1000 life points and summon Elemental Hero Bladedge (ATK 2600)."

Star and Kwan's life points decreased to 7000 and a golden minotour with curved blades on its forearms appeared in front of Kwan.

"You're not the only one who can summon a powerful Elemental Hero," Tucker said. "I play Polymerization. This let's me fuse Elemental Hero Bubbleman and King Of The Swamp in my hand to summon Elemental Hero Mudballman (DEF 3000)."

A big brown humanoid creature that seemed to be composed of mud balls was brought forth in front of Tucker in a defensive position. _I hope Danny can put up just as strong of a defense, _Tucker thought. "Your turn Star," he said.

Star didn't say anything as she drew and played face down monster and a face down card in her spell/trap zone.

"My move," Danny said then drew. "I see your face downs," he said as he also played a face down monster and spell/trap card, "and also play the continuos spell The A. Forces. As long as this card is out, each warrior monster Tucker and I have out receives a 200 attack point boost for each warrior."

"I activate my trap," Star said and revealed her face down card to be the Solemn Wishes continuos trap. "With this card, Kwan and I gain 500 life points each time one of us draws a card."

"Thanks babe," Kwan said as he drew, causing he and Star's life points to rise to 7500. "I summon Warrior Lady Of The Wasteland (ATK 1100)," he said, and a blond woman wearing green clothes, a brown hat and cloak and a sword strapped to her back appeared in front of Kwan. "Now Bladedge, attack Fenton's face down monster," he ordered, and Bladedge charged Danny's face down monster, revealing it to be Mystic Tomato (DEF 1100) which was a giant tomato with a face.

Bladedge sliced Mystic Tomato to shreds and made Danny and Tucker's life points decrease to 6500. "Why did my life points go down if my monster was defense mode?" he asked.

"Because Bladedge has a special effect," Kwan said. "He can inflict battle damage on an opponent's monster in defense mode."

"Well my monster has a special effect too," Danny countered. "When Mystic Tomato's destroyed, I can summon a Dark monster with less than 1500 attack points. And I choose Destiny Hero Malicious (ATK 800)." Danny picked the card out of his deck and played, bringing forth a demonic humanoid with brown skin and black fur as well as wings and three horns on its head. Upon hitting the field, Malicious's attack strength went up to 1200 due to The A. Forces.

"Warrior Lady, attack Malicious," Kwan said with a grin, causing Warrior Lady Of The Wasteland to charge into battle. She lifted her sword to strike Malicious, but was destroyed by a punch from the demonic looking Destiny Hero. The battle caused Star and Kwan's life points to decrease to 7400.

"Why did you attack my monster when it was stronger?" Danny asked.

"Because when Warrior Lady Of The Wasteland is destroyed, I can summon an Earth attribute warrior monster with less than 1500 attack points from my deck," Kwan explained. He searched through his deck and found the card he was looking for. "I play Amazoness Swords Woman (ATK 1500)."

Kwan brought forth a muscular woman with a wild mane of red hair wearing what looked like a blue bikini and wielding a curved sword. He then had the Swords Woman attack Elemental Hero Mudballman. She swung her sword at Mudballman, which yielded no effect.

"Because of Amazoness Swords Woman's effect," Kwan began, "All the battle damage I take involving her is transferred to my opponent."

_Uh oh, _Danny and Tucker thought simultaneously as their life points dropped to 5000.

_This is not good, _Tucker thought. _The duel just started and we're down 3000 life points. Let's see if I can turn things around, _he thought as he drew then weighed his options. _It's not that good, but it's the best I've got._

"I summon Elemental Hero Bustinitrix (ATK 1200, increased by The A. Forces to 1800)," Tucker said as he brought forth a woman with white hair and a red costume. "Attack Amazoness Swords Woman," Tucker ordered, making Bustinitrix unleash a barrage of several fireballs at Kwan's monster. Swords Woman's effect came into play once more, causing Danny and Tucker's life points to reduce to 4700.

"My turn," Star said with a stern expression as she drew, making Solemn Wishes activate and raising her and Kwan's life points to 7900. "I reveal my face down monster to be Skelengel (ATK 900)," she said, flipping her monster face up and showing that it was a pair of disembodied angel wings and hands wielding a bow.

"When Shelengel is flipped face up," Star continued, "I get to draw a card." Star drew her card, causing Solemn Wishes to activate and raise her and Kwan's life points rise to 8400. "I sacrifice Skelengel to summon Airknight Parshath (ATK 1900)," Star said, sending Skelengel to the graveyard and bringing forth a centurion knight with blue armor and angel wings over his chest and thighs.

"Parshath, attack Malicious," Star ordered, making Airknight Parshath charge Destiny Hero Malicious (ATK 1400) and slashed the Hero with his sword, sending Danny and Tucker's life points down 4200. "And thanks to Parshath's special effect when he deals battle damage to my opponent, I draw a card." Star drew from her deck once again and once again her side's life points rose, this time to 8900.

_This is getting ridiculous, _Danny thought as he drew. He looked at his new card and grinned, knowing that he could finally start dishing some damage. _These guys are good. I definitely want them to help me against Chaos Emperor Dragon. And for that, I have to win._

"I use Destiny Hero Malicious's special effect," he said. "I remove it from my graveyard and can summon another copy from my deck," Danny said as he did just that. "Next, I use Kwan's Mausoleum field spell to pay 500 life points so I can summon Destiny Hero Double Dude," he said, then reduced his life points to 3700 so he could summon Double Dude without a sacrifice. The A. Forces spell raised Malicious's and Double Dude's attack points to 1600 and 1800 respectively.

"I activate my face down card, D-Chain," Danny continued. "I attach this card to Double Dude further raising his attack strength to 2300," he said, making a chain with a pointed head appear on Double Dude. "Double Dude, attack Parshath," Danny said. Double Dude swung the D-chain around himself and lunged it at Airknight Parshath, destroying the angelic monster and making Star and Kwan's life points decrease to 8500. "D-Chain has another effect besides boosting a Destiny Hero's strength. When a Destiny Hero equipped with D-Chain destroys a monster, 500 points of damage are inflicted on my opponent."

Star and Kwan's life points went down to 8000. Danny then had Double Dude attack again, targeting Star directly. The dichotomous Destiny Hero changed into his muscular form and struck Star with the D-Chain, dropping Star and Kwan's life points to 5700. He followed through with Malicious doing the same, further decreasing his opponents' life points to 4100.

_All right, I was able to undo some of Star's life point regeneration, _Danny thought. _Tucker and I were off to a rough start at first, but things are looking up now. Hopefully, we can keep it up._


	4. Chapter 4

"You're going to pay for that Fenton," Kwan said angrily as he drew, making Solemn Wishes raise his and Star's life points to 4600. "I summon Gearfreid The Iron Knight (ATK 1800)," he said, and a man in a gray suit of armor and a curved blade on his right arm appeared in front of Kwan. "Bladedge, attack Double Dude," Kwan ordered, making Bladedge sliced the Destiny Hero with his forearm blades. Then he had Gearfreid attack Malicious (ATK 1400) by slicing the demonic Destiny Hero with his blade. Both battles had reduced Danny and Tucker's life points to 3000.

"My turn," Tucker said as he drew, then grinned when he saw his new card. "I convert Mudballman to attack mode," he said and made the Elemental Hero abandon his defensive pose. "Next, I equip him with Fusion Weapon. This increases his attack strength by 1500."

Mudballman's right arm changed into a blaster and his attack points became 3800. Tucker ordered Mudballman to attack Bladedge. His Elemental Hero unleashed a large orange energy blast from his new Weapon at Kwan's Elemental Hero. Bladedge was destroyed and Star and Kwan's life points went down to 3400. To follow through, Tucker had had Burstinitrix attack Star directly. The female Elemental Hero sent fiery barrage at her target and decreased Star and Kwan's life points to 1800.

Star didn't say anything as she narrowed her eyes and drew, causing her and Kwan's life points to increase to 2300. "If you think you've got us beat, you're dead wrong," Star declared. "I use Kwan's field spell to pay 1000 life points to summon Guardian Angel Joan (ATK 2800) without a tribute," Star said, making her and Kwan's life points go down to 1300. Her new monster was an angel with short orange hair and a white dress.

"Now I play Heavy Storm," Star continued. Her spell card created a powerful storm emanating from the center of the field that destroyed all the spell and trap cards in play. With The A. Forces and Fusion Weapon gone, Tucker's Elemental Heroes reverted to their original attack values. "Joan, attack Mudballman." Guardian Angel Joan put her hands together and fired a powerful blast of light at Mudballman, destroying the monster and reducing Danny and Tucker's life points to 2100. "And when Joan destroys a monster, I get to increase my life points by an amount equal to the attack points of the monster I just destroyed."

Guardian Angel Joan emitted a white aura and increased Star and Kwan's life points to 3100. _What is up with her and gaining life points, _Danny thought to himself as he drew. _Oh yeah. This is gonna be good._

"Since Double Dude was destroyed last turn, I now get two Double Dude Tokens," Danny said as the tokens manifested in front of him. "I also summon Destiny Hero Captain Tenacious (ATK 800)," he said and summoned a muscular man with red hair, no shirt and huge black fin like objects on his arms. "Now I sacrifice all three monsters to summon Destiny Hero Dogma (ATK 3400)," he said, making all three monsters disappear and brought forth a demonic knight with black armor, a sword and large bat like wings.

"Dogma, attack Guardian Angel Joan," Danny said. Dogma struck Joan with his sword, destroying the monster and sending Star and Kwan's life points down to 2500. "That's all for now," Danny said. Kwan drew a card as his turn began. This made Dogma form a dark aura around himself. "One more thing: Dogma has a special effect. When my opponent's turn begins after he's summoned, my opponent's life points are halved."

Star and Kwan's life points were reduced to 1250. _This is not good, _the asian jock thought as he looked at his hand and weighed his options. _I can't win with any of these cards. The best I can do is take out most of their remaining life points. Hopefully Star will be able to get to her next turn and finish them off then._

"I summon Obnoxious Celtic Guard (ATK 1400)," Kwan said, making an elfin warrior in khaki clothes appear in front of him. "Gearfreid, destroy Burstinitrix," he ordered, causing the Iron Knight to destroy the fiery Elemental Hero with his blade. "Celtic Guard, attack Foley directly," Kwan said, and his monster did as it was directed. The result of both battles left Danny and Tucker with only 100 life points.

Tucker drew as his turn began, hoping he would get a monster with enough attack points to attack Star directly and send her and Kwan's life points to 0. And he got what he was hoping for. "I summon Elemental Hero Sparkman (ATK 1600)," Tucker said and a man in a blue and yellow costume appeared in front of him. "Sparkman, attack Star directly," he said. Sparkman fired a blast of electricity from his hand that hit Star and reduced her and Kwan's life points to 0.

All the remaining monsters vanished as their controllers deactivated their duel disks. "Son of a bitch!" Star exclaimed as she stomped the ground and began angrily pacing around.

"Is she all right?" Tucker asked.

"She's fine," Kwan said. "She just hates when she loses. Give her a while to cool down and she'll be good as new." Three minutes later, Star had calmed down and was now ready to talk business.

"So," the blond began, "what do you need our help?"

Danny related the current crisis to the duo. "And even with you two, we still need another," Danny said, finishing his story.

"Luckily for you, I know someone who can fill the missing gap," Star said. "She has no experience with Duel Monsters, but I've taught her the basics and as you've seen for yourself, I am very familiar with the game."

"Fantastic. Get her and then all of you come to my place in an hour," Danny said. Star agreed to his terms and the gathered teenagers split.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to trust whoever Star picks?" Sam asked.

"Maybe not," Danny responded. "But while we wait, the Chaos Emperor Dragon is recovering its power. If we wait too long, we might not be able to stop it."

--

An hour later, Star and Kwan had made their way to Fentonworks and had brought Paulina with them. "Oh hell no," Sam said when she saw the bubbly latina. "There is no way we can have her come with us."

"I'm glad to hear you say that goth girl," Paulina said, "because I have no intention of helping you. So you can all go and bite my ass," she said, then turned around, dropped her pants and mooned them. "Go on: bite it."

"Did I miss something?" Danny asked. He was confused as to why his former fan girl wasn't jumping for joy at the chance to help him. In his confusion, he did not notice Tucker use his PDA to discreetly take a picture of Paulina's hind quarters.

"But you said you were going to help us," Star whined.

"And that was a lie," Paulina said smugly as she pulled her pants up. "I only said that so that I could diss Fenton off in person. And it was great."

"But what do you have against Danny?" Jazz asked.

"I'm glad you asked," Paulina said with a grin. "What I have against him is that he is a pansy. He's had super powers for over a year and hasn't used them to go Columbine on Dash Baxter's ass!" Paulina yelled, then took a breath and composed herself. "I mean, it's not like he hasn't given you ample motivation. You just don't have the cajones to go through with it."

"Danny's meant to do great things with his powers," Sam protested. "Getting back at the school bully would not be on that list. Also, there is a reason why murder is illegal. If everyone was allowed to kill someone whenever they thought it was justified, there wouldn't be a whole lot of people left."

"But I want him dead so much," Paulina whined. "He'd deserve it for what he's doing to me."

"What is he doing to you?" Danny asked, curious about what has Paulina so pissed.

"If I tell you, will you kill him?" Paulina asked pleadingly.

"No, but maybe I'll use my new celebrity status to do something about it: something that doesn't involve death."

"Deal. Anyway, Dash is blackmailing me. He says that if I don't act like his girlfriend and occasionally have sex with him, he'll beat me to within an inch of my life and tell the cops I was assaulted by black guys. And since he's the white football star and I'm just a spic cheerleader, nobody would take my word over his. And since both our families are rich, that cancels out."

Everyone was stunned silent when Paulina was done with her story. A few tense moments later, Danny spoke up. "If you help us with this whole soul stealing thing, I will definitely do something about Dash."

"Okay," Paulina agreed. With that, Danny led everyone down stairs to the basement lab to present Paulina, Star and Kwan with the remaining amulets.


	5. Chapter 5

The seven teenagers descended the staircase into the Fenton family's lab. Fortunately for them, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton were busy with business on the other end of town. Danny retrieved the remaining amulets and presented them in front of Star, Kwan and Paulina.

"I'll take the white one," Star said as she picked up her desired amulet and put it on. A white ring went traveled over her horizontally. When it completed her course, Star found herself wearing a white dress. "Not bad," she said, admiring her new look. She then looked at the deck the amulet made for her and found that it was a lot like her old fairy one but with some additions that Star greatly appreciated. This caused her to shriek in joy like the teenaged girl she was.

Up next was Kwan. He choose the red amulet. He strapped it on and a red ring of energy dressed him in a red suit of armor that made him look like an ancient Chinese general. "All right," he said. He looked at his new deck and discovered that it was similar to his old one revolving around Earth attribute warriors but with a few additions. This made Kwan grin.

"Guess I'll take the last one," Paulina said and grabbed the pink amulet. She put it on and pink ring of energy gave her a pink jumpsuit with a skirt and hair clips that resembled fins. "Oh, I like it," she said. She looked through the deck amulet gave her and saw that it was full of Water attribute monsters.

With that out of the way, Danny, Tucker, Sam and Jazz put on their amulets and were donned in their own special outfits from earlier. "Now let's head into the ghost zone and stop the Chaos Emperor Dragon," Danny said.

"Before we do that," Jazz said, "there's something I want to bring up."

"What's that Jazz."

"The information transfer from my amulet is enough for me to engage in shadow games, but I want to get a little bit a actual experience before we go on the offensive. In other words, I want to play one of you in a practice duel."

"I'll play you," Paulina said as she deployed the arms on her amulet. "We're both in the same boat."

"Perfect," Jazz said as got the appropriate distance away from her opponent and also deployed her amulet's arms. Each of them drew their opening hand of five cards and began with 4000 life points. "You can go first if you want to."

"Thank you," Paulina said courtly as she drew. "I summon Gagagigo (ATK 1850)," she said and brought forth a humanoid green lizard. "Your move."

Jazz drew her card and looked at her hand for a strategy. "I summon Hydrogeddon (ATK 1600)," the redhead said and a quadruped lizard made out of what seemed to be swirling brown water appeared in front of her.

"Ha," Paulina taunted. "How do you plan to stop me by playing a monster weaker than mine?"

"With this," Jazz responded as she played the Jurassic World field spell. The area around them was covered by a prehistoric jungle. "This spell raises the attack strength of all my dinosaurs by 300 points. "Hydrogeddon, attack," Jazz ordered, and Hydrogeddon unleashed a stream of brown water that destroyed Gagagigo. "Hydrogeddon destroys a monster, I get to summon another Hydrogeddon from my deck thanks to its special effect."

Jazz summoned her 2nd Hydrogeddon. Like the first, its attack strength was raised to 1900 due to Jurassic World. Since Jazz's battle phase hadn't ended, she had the new monster attack Paulina directly. Both battles sent the latina's life points to 2050. Paulina drew as her turn began and was glad to see her new card.

"I play Terra Forming," Paulina said as she played the spell. "This let's me add a field spell from my deck to my hand: like A Legendary Ocean," she said and added the aforementioned card to her hand. She played her field spell, which destroyed Jazz's and replaced the prehistoric jungle with a pool of water at their feet and an ancient building next to them.

"My field spell gives a 200 point boost to Water monsters and takes one level star off of ones in the hand as well," Paulina said. "Because of that last effect, I can now summon Giga Gagagigo (ATK 2450, increased to 2650) without a tribute," Paulina explained and summoned a normally 5 star monster but was now 4 star. Her new creature was basically a nastier version of her previous one. "Now, attack Hydrogeddon," Paulina ordered. Giga Gagagigo destroyed one of the dinosaurs with a powerful swipe. Because Hydrogeddon was a Water monster, it also got a 200 point boost from A Legendary Ocean. The battle decreased Jazz's life points to 3150.

"Not bad," Jazz said as she drew. "I convert my last Hydrogeddon to defense mode (DEF 1000)," she said and Hydrogeddon took a defensive stance. "I also play Black Stego in defense mode (DEF 2000)," she said and a black stegosaurus in a defensive stance appeared in front of her.

Paulina drew. "I summon Mermaid Knight (ATK 1500, increased to 1700)," she said and brought forth a mermaid with pink hair, a green tail, blue clothes and a sword. "Giga Gagagigo, destroy Black Stego," Paulina declared, making her monster destroy Jazz's. "Mermaid Knight, attack Hydrogeddon," Paulina said, and the mermaid charged forward and destroyed Hydrogeddon with a sword swipe. "If Mermaid Knight is on the field at the same time as A Legendary Ocean, she can attack again," she explained and Mermaid Knight attacked Jazz directly, sending the redhead's life points to 1450.

_Oh dear, _Jazz thought as she remarked on how Paulina had turned things around. _Still, I have no intention of going down without a fight._ Jazz drew her card and looked at her hand to formulate a plan. She smirked as she came up with a way to win the duel.

"I play Premature Burial. I pay 800 life points and get to bring back one of my monsters: like Hydrogeddon," Jazz said. Her life points went down to 650 and Hydrogeddon came back in attack mode. "Next, I special summon Gilasaurus (ATK 1400) thanks to its effect," she continued. Her new monster looked like a typical raptor. "Because I used Gilasaurus's effect, you get to summon a monster from your graveyard."

"Fine," Paulina acknowledged as she summoned Gagagigo, the only monster in her graveyard, in attack mode.

"Now I sacrifice Gilasaurus and Hydrogeddon to summon Ultimate Tyranno (ATK 3000)," Jazz said. Her two monsters disappeared and were replaced by a large dinosaur covered with black scales and spikes on his back. "My new monster has a special effect. In a single turn, it can and must attack all of my opponent's monsters."

_Crap, _Paulina thought as she realized that this was it for her. Ultimate Tyranno charged forward and trampled Mermaid Knight. Then it swung its tail and destroyed Giga Gagagigo with a powerful swipe. Finally, the dinosaur brought it's jaws around Gagagigo and bit down, destroying Paulina's monsters and eliminating the remainder of the bubbly latina's life points. With the duel over, the images of disappeared and Paulina slumped her shoulders in defeat.

"Cheer up," Jazz said to her defeated opponent. "You put up a really good fight. I'm positive you'll be a great help to us against the soul collectors."

This caused Paulina to perk up. "Now that that's out of the way," Danny spoke up, "Let's go into the ghost zone and take the fight to them."

Everyone nodded in agreement. They all climbed in the Specter Speeder and sped off into the ghost zone. Tucker plotted a course for Dora's castle, thinking that with Aragon back and with power, the first thing he'd do is take back his old stronghold.

Several minutes later, the craft and its ocuppants had arrived at their destination. Before Tucker could bring the Specter Speeder in for a landing, all its systems went simultaneously off-line and the ship crash landed. Fortunately, none of the seven within were seriously harmed.

"Great landing shit for brains," Star said sarcastically, deriding Tucker's piloting skills. "Were you trying to get us all killed, or do you just suck?"

"It wasn't his fault," Danny said in a tone that made Star know he wasn't in a joking mood. "Aragon must of put the anti tech field up again. Now quit your bitching and start walking."

With that, the seven teenagers exited the downed craft and began walking towards the castle.


	6. Chapter 6

The group could see the castle from the crash site and estimated that it would be about a 15 minute walk to get there. A minute after they began their journey, an orb of black light in front of them and changed into the form of Aragon.

"Well isn't this fortunate," Danny said with a smirk. He charged an ecto blast in his hand and fired it at Aragon, only for the blast to move through him.

"Valiant effort, but I'm not really here," Aragon said. "This is just a projection of myself I've sent to greet you. I've been expecting you."

"You have?"

"Of course. When I saw Jonathan's soul enter the slumbering Chaos Emperor Dragon, I knew that he had broken my edict about not targeting you until it was too late for you to stop us. And now that you've decided to practice your talent for disruption against me, I challenge you to a little game."

"A shadow game?"

"Eventually. But you must earn the right to challenge me. If you and your cohorts can make it past my soul collectors, you will then get to face me."

"How about we just skip the crap and get to kicking your but?" Kwan asked.

"Not going to happen," Aragon said smugly. "My domain, my rules." And with that, the image of Aragon disappeared in a bright flash. When the light subsided, Desiree and Ember. Instead of her usual punk rock outfit, Ember was wearing a black hoop skirt dress instead. Both of them were wearing amulets equipped to play shadow games.

"Never thought I'd be glad to see you Desiree," Danny said with a smirk. "I wish........"

"That isn't going to work, child," Desiree said calmly. "Lord Aragon predicted that you would try to use my powers against him and in his wisdom, he has relieved me of my sense of hearing."

"Crap," Danny said, disappointed that he couldn't abuse Desiree's ability for a quick fix. "But if you're deaf now, how do you know what I'm saying?"

"I can read lips," Desiree replied. "When you've existed for as long as me, you pick up a few things."

"Now that we've gotten that out of the way," Ember said and materialized the arms of her amulet, "which of you wants to take me on?"

"I'll go," Sam volunteered. She materialized the arms of her amulet and the duel between them began. They drew their opening hands and started off with 4000 life points each.

"You can go first if you want," Ember said.

"I will," Sam said as she drew. "I summon Zure, Knight Of Dark World (ATK 1800) in attack mode," Sam said and a demonic knight with blue skin and a cape appeared in front of her. Sam ended her turn and Ember drew as she began hers.

"I summon Cyber Tutu (ATK 1000)," the musical ghost said and brought forth a girl with short pink hair and a short frilly skirt.

_That brain washing must have gone in deep, _Sam thought, surprised that Ember would play a card like Cyber Tutu.

"I also play one card face down and equip Cyber Tutu with Divine Sword - Phoenix Blade," Ember said. Her monster now wielded a straight sword with a golden winged handle which increased her attack strength to 1300. "Cyber Tutu has a special effect. If my opponent's monsters are stronger than her, then she can attack directly. Like this," Ember said and had Cyber Tutu rush into battle. The female monster blew past Zure and swung her sword at Sam, lowering the goth's life points to 2700.

"So your monster's tougher than she looks," Sam said as she drew. "But she's not tougher than Brron, Mad King Of Dark World (ATK 1800)," Sam said and summoned the montser. Her new creature was a demonic humanoid with blue skin, white dreadlocks and had its upper arms chained together. "Zure, attack Cyber Tutu," Sam ordered. Zure was about to destroy Cyber Tutu with his sword, but was interrupted.

"I activate my trap card, Doble Passe," Ember said as she revealed her face down card. "This trap changes your monster's target to me," Ember explained. Zure struck her with his sword and decreased her life points to 2200. "But that's not all. My monster gets to attack you directly as well," she said. Cyber Tutu once again attacked Sam directly and lowered her life points to 1400.

"You stopped my first attack, but let's see you stop my second," Sam said and directed Brron to attack Cyber Tutu. Brron destroyed the female monster and sent Ember's life points down to 1700. "Since Brron just inflicted damage to you, his special effect activates. I now discard a card from my hand," Sam said as she did just that. "The card I just discarded was Brow, Huntsman Of Darkworld. When Brow is discarded to the graveyard, his special effect activates and let's me draw a card."

Sam drew her card and was pleased with what she got: Sylvia, Warlord of Darkworld. _This could definitely come in handy, _Sam thought then ended her turn.

Ember drew. "I summon Manju Of The Ten Thousand Hands (ATK 1400)," Ember said and brought forth what looked like a gray man many arms. "When Manju is summoned, I get to add a ritual spell or monster from my deck to my hand," she explained and added a monster. "Next, I play Machine Angel Ritual. I tribute Manju from the field and Beautiful Headhuntress from my hand to summon Siberia Angel Dakini (ATK 2700)," Ember said. Manju disappeared and in its place was a woman with blue skin, an orange breast plate and four arms. In two of the arms, she wielded a spear. She wielded a sword in each of the other two. "When Dakini is summoned, my opponent has to pick one of their monsters to be destroyed."

"Well then, I choose Brron," Sam said and the Mad King Of Dark World was destroyed. Ember then had Dakini attack. The Cyber Angel charged forward and destroyed Zure with her weapons, bringing Sam's life points down to 500.

_This is not good, _Sam thought. _Unless I draw something good right now, this is going to be it for me. _Sam drew and was relieved to draw the exact card she needed to turn things around and win the duel.

"I play Card Destruction," Sam said. "We both discard our entire hands and then draw the same number of cards from our decks." Both Ember and Sam did just that. "One of the cards I just discarded was Sylvia, Warlord Of Dark World (ATK 2300). And when Sylvia is discarded, I get to summon him to the field," Sam said and summoned Sylvia. Her new montser was a blue demon with two knives.

"As strong as your new monster is, it's no mach for Dakini," Ember taunted.

"Then it's a good thing I discarded another Dark World card as well," Sam said. "I also discarded Khaki, Gorilla Of Dark World. Now one of your monsters is destroyed: like Dakini," Sam explained and Dakini was destroyed. "Sylvia, attack Ember directly," Sam ordered. Sylvia struck Ember with his knives and sent her life points down to 0, winning the duel for Sam.

"Damn," Ember said as she clutched her shoulder in pain and began evaporating. "Well this sucks. I hope you get what's going to you. And when that happens, I'll be laughing from........ wherever it is I'm going to." With that, Ember finished dispersing.

"That's too bad," Desiree said then displayed the arms of her amulet. "Now which one of you wants to have the honor of being defeated by me?"

"I'll face you," Tuacker said as he activated his amulet. "I still owe you for that time you almost turned me into a drooling ghost monster."

"Oh yes," Desiree said as she fondly recalled that incident. "Let's see if your luck will prevail a second time."


	7. Chapter 7

Tucker and Desiree drew their opening hands and started with 4000 life points. "I'll go first," Desiree said as she drew. "I play one card face down and one monster face down." Desiree ended her turn and Tucker drew. "Now I activate my trap, Jar Of Greed. This let's me draw a card," the ghost genie explained as she drew her card.

"I play Polymerization and fuse Elemental Heroes Avian and Burstinitrix to summon Elemental Hero Flame Wingman (ATK 2100)," Tucker said and brought forth a humanoid with green skin, one white wing on his left side, a red tail and a red dragon's head for a right arm. "Flame Wingman, attack Desiree's defensive monster," Tucker ordered. Flame Wingman flew into battle and struck the face down monster with his dragon arm, revealing the monster to be Giant Rat (which looked exactly like that). Giant Rat was easily destroyed. "Now you get to see Flame Wingman's special effect. When he destroys a monster, my opponent loses life points equal to the destroyed monster's attack points.

Flame Wingman unleashed a stream of fire from his dragon arm at Desiree. Since Giant Rat had an attack strength of 1400, Desiree lost that many life points. Her new life point total was 2600.

"My monster has a special effect as well," Desiree said calmly. "When Giant Rat is destroyed,I get to summon an Earth monster with less than 1500 attack points from my deck to the field in attack mode. And I choose Millennium Shield (ATK 0)," she explained. Her new monster was a red and gold shield. Tucker ended his turn and Desiree drew. "I convert Millennium Shield to defense mode (DEF 3000) and end my turn."

"What the hell kind of strategy is she using?" Kwan asked out loud as observed the duel. "All she's doing is drawing cards and playing defense. How does she plan to win like that?"

_Kwan may be an idiot jock, but he does have point, _Tucker thought. _There's no way she beat me like that. Unless......_ Tucker's eyes widened as he realized what Desiree was up to.

"Judging by your expression, you've deduced my plan," Desiree said. "Since there's no way you can win, there will be no harm in confirming your suspicions. My plan is to assemble the five pieces of Exodia The Forbidden One. Once I get all five cards in my hand, I'll instantly win the duel."

"Not if I beat you first," Tucker said as he drew. Unfortunately for him, didn't have any cards in his hand that could get past Millennium Shield. "I pass this turn," Tucker said begrudgingly.

"Excellent," Desiree said as she drew then passed as well. Tucker drew as his turn began and was glad to get something that could hurt Desiree.

"I play the spell Fusion Recovery. This lets me take a fusion material monster, suck as Bustinitrix, and a Polymerization card from my graveyard and add them to my hand," Tucker said. "Now I play Polymerization and combine Bustinitrix with Elemental Hero Clayman to summon Elemental Hero Rampart Blaster in defense mode (DEF 2500)."

A Woman in large brown armor with a missile launcher on her right arm and a red shield on her left appeared in a defensive stance in front of Tucker. "Now to show off Rampart Blaster's special effect," Tucker said. "When she's in defense mode, she can attack you directly. But doing so only inflicts half as muck damage as a normal attack."

Tucker had Rampart Blaster attack. The fused Elemental Hero unleashed several missiles that flew past Millennium Shield and hit Desiree. Since Rampart Blaster had 2000 attack points, the ghost genie lost 1000. Her new life point total was 1600.

Desiree drew as her turn began. "I summon Card Trooper (ATK 400)," she said and brought forth a yellow machine with a tank like lower half and a torso with two blaster arms for an upper half. "I activate Card Trooper's special effect. I send the top three cards from my deck to the graveyard and Card Trooper gains 1500 attack points," Desiree explained as her monster's attack strength rose to 1900.

"But even with those extra points, Card Trooper isn't powerful enough to destroy either of my monsters," Tucker pointed out.

"Then it's a good thing I'm not going to attack," Desiree countered. "I play Mystic Wok and use it to tribute Card Trooper. Now my life points increase by the amount of attack points my monster had." Card Trooper disappeared from the field and Desiree's life points increased to 3500. "And when Card Trooper is sent to the graveyard, I draw a card." Desiree drew her card and smirked at what she got. "I play Foolish Burial, which allows me to move a monster from my deck to my graveyard. Next, I play Dark Factory Of Mass Production. With this spell, I add two normal monsters from my graveyard to my hand: such as the Left Leg and Right Arm Of The Forbidden One," she explained as she added the aforementioned cards.

_This is just great, _Tucker thought sarcastically. _Desiree's done a great job of keeping her life points up, stalling me and cutting down the size of her deck. To make things worst, I know she's got at least two of the Exodia pieces in her hand. I need to stop her fast._

Tucker drew. "I convert Rampart Blaster to attack mode and play Enemy Controller. I use Enemy Controller to change your Millennium Shield to attack mode," Tucker said and both monsters changed modes. "Flame Wingman, destroy Millennium Shield," Tucker ordered. Flame Wingman flew forward destroyed the Shield with his dragon arm.

"I discard Kuriboh from my hand," Desiree said as she did just that. "Kuriboh's effect allows me to discard it when I take damage and negate that damage."

"Fine," Tucker said angrily. "Let's see you block this. Rampart Blaster, attack Desiree directly," Tucker ordered. Rampart Blaster fired missiles that hit Desiree and decreased the ghost genie's life points to 1500. "I'm done for now."

Desiree drew. "I play Graceful Charity. I now draw three cards and discard two," she said, then drew and discarded her cards. "I summon Spirit Reaper in defense mode (DEF 200)," she said. Her new monster was a skeleton with a dark cloak and scythe in a defensive stance. "And just so you know, Spirit Reaper is indestructible in battle."

_Damn, _Tucker thought. _I have to end this quick. _Tucker drew his card. "I convert Rampart Blaster back to defense mode and equip her with Fusion Weapon," Tucker said. Rampart Blaster took a defensive stance and her missile launcher was replaced with an energy blaster that increased her attack points to 3500. "Rampart Blaster, end this duel," he ordered.

Rampart Blaster unleashed a powerful blast of yellow energy that flew past Spirit Reaper and hit Desiree. The blast inflicted 1750 points of damage: more than enough to defeat Desiree.

"Well done," Desiree said as she began evaporating. "You've defeated me, but your skills will avail you nothing against Aragon and the other soul collectors." With that, Desiree completely vanished.

The group of seven continued walking forward. A minute into their continued march, the next two soul collectors obstructed their path: Technus and Skulker.

"Now then," Technus said as he brandished his amulet. "Which one of you foolish teenagers wants to be the first to fall before the ghostly master of technology?"

"I'll go," Kwan said. "Your voice is pissing me off."

"Very well then," Technus said and the two began their duel.


	8. Chapter 8

Kwan and Technus both drew their opening hands and began with 4000 life points. "I"m going first," Technus said. he drew and placed one monster face down.

"That's not going to help you," Kwan said as he drew. "I summon Marauding Captain (ATK 1200)," Kwan said and brought forth a man with blond hair who had gray armor and two swords. "When Marauding Captain is summoned, I get to special summon another monster from my hand: like Hero Kid (ATK 300)," he said. His new monster was a kid in a red and white super hero like costume with a bowl like helmet.

"When Hero Kid is special summoned," Kwan continued, "I get to summon two more from my deck," he said and the additional monsters appeared. "Next, I play The A. Forces." The spell card increased each of Kwan's monsters' attack strength by 800 points. Marauding Captain had 2000 points and each Hero Kid had 1100.

"Way to go Kwan," Star said enthusiastically, cheering her boyfriend on.

_That's quite a line up, _Danny thought as he observed the duel. _If all his monsters hit Technus, that loud mouthed ghost will be in a serious bind._

"Marauding Captain, attack," Kwan ordered, prompting his monster to charge into battle and slice Technus's monster, which was Giant Rat.

"Since you destroyed my monster," Technus said, "I get to summon another one from my deck: as long as its an Earth monster with 1500 or less attack points. And I select Ancient Gear Engineer (ATK 1500)." Technus's new monster was a brown robot with a big drill that seemed run down. Since Ancient Gear Engineer was more powerful than the Hero Kids, Kwan had no choice but to end his turn.

Technus drew from his deck as he smirked with glee. "I follow through by summoning Ancient Gear Soldier (ATK 1300)," he said and brought forth a monster that looked similar to his first one, but wielded a rifle instead. "Now I play the spell Shield And Sword."

Technus's spell exchanged all monsters' attack points with their defense points. Both of the Ancient Gear monsters had identical attack and defense point values, so there was so change for them. Marauding Captain's attack strength was changed to 400 while the Hero Kids' attack strength became 600. After that, Kwan's monsters were increased by The A. Forces to 1200 and 1400 respectively.

"Ancient Gear Engineer, attack Marauding Captain," Technus ordered. the Engineer destroyed the Captain with its drill. "When Ancient Gear Engineer destroys a monster, I get to destroy one of my opponent's spell or trap cards: like The A. Forces." Kwan's spell card was destroyed and his Hero Kids were weakened to 600 points. "Ancient Gear Soldier, destroy one of those Hero brats," he said, making his monster fire its rifle and destroy a Hero Kid. The result of both battles lowered Kwan's life points to 3000.

Kwan drew. "I sacrifice one of my Hero Kids to summon Freed the Matchless General (ATK 2300)," he said. A Hero Kid disappeared and was replaced by a man with a sword, steel armor and long blond hair and a matching mustache. "Freed, attack Ancient Gear Soldier," he said. Freed slashed the machine with his sword and destroyed the monster, as well as lowering Technus's life points to 3000. "I change my last Hero Kid to defense mode and end my turn."

Technus drew. Since there wasn't anything he could do, he changed Ancient Gear Soldier to defense mode and placed another monster face down.

Kwan drew. "I summon Blindly Loyal Goblin (ATK 1800)," he said. His new monster was a tall goblin with light brown skin dressed in purple pants and black vest. "Freed, destroy Ancient Gear Engineer," he said. the Matchless General destroyed the Engineer easily. "Goblin, attack the last monster." Blindly Loyal Goblin attacked the face down monster, revealing it to be Ancient Gear (DEF 100). the Goblin destroyed Technus's last monster with a strong punch.

Technus drew. The self proclaimed master of all things technological and beeping began laughing maniacally as he saw his card.

"What's so damn funny?" Kwan asked.

"You'll see. But first I play the field spell Mausoleum of the Emperor," Technus said as he played the spell and an image of an ancient temple appeared next to them. "I use my field spell to make to tributes so I can summon Ancient Gear Golem (ATK 3000)," he said. Technus's life points decreased to 2000 as he brought forth a giant humanoid machine made of rusted metal. "Golem, attack Hero Kid." Ancient Gear Golem brought back its arm and destroyed Hero Kid with an explosive punch.

"The joke's on you, idiot," Kwan mocked. "My monster was in defense mode."

"Irrelevant," Technus countered. "Ancient Gear Golem is capable of dealing battle damage to a monster in defense mode. And since Hero Kid had a measly 600 defense points, you lose almost all of your life points," he said as Kwan's life points went down to 600.

_There is no way in hell I'm losing to someone this annoying, _Kwan thought as he drew. He already had a card in his hand that would win the duel for him. "You just made a big mistake," Kwan said. "Want to know what it is?"

"A mistake? Me?" Technus exclaimed and let out a hardy laugh. "That's impossible! More likely, the pressure of you're immanent defeat has made you delirious."

"Nope," Kwan said calmly. "Let me show you. I sacrifice my two monsters and make another tribute with Mausoleum to summon Gilford The Lightning (ATK 2800)." Freed and the Blindly Loyal Goblin disappeared and Kwan's life points went down to only 100. In front of the asian jock appeared a muscular warrior with gray armor, a red cape and a large sword.

"That's your big plan?" Technus asked in a mocking tone. "You went through all that just to summon a monster that's still weaker than mine."

"Then it's a good thing that Gilford has a special effect," Kwan said smugly. "When he's summoned by making three tributes, like I just did, all of my opponent's monsters are destroyed." Gilford swung his sword and sent a wave of lightning at Ancient Gear Golem, destroying the gigantic machine. "Gilford, attack directly," Kwan ordered.

Gilford charged forward and slashed Technus, defeating him. "This can't be!" Technus yelled as he began to evaporate. "How could I, Technus, the ghostly master of technology be defeated by a mere teenager with an overdeveloped physique and an underdeveloped mind? I'm not sure how, but I'll make you pay for this insult you little........." he was interrupted as he completely vanished.

"It's about time he shut up," Kwan said as all the images from the duel disappeared.

"Quite," Skulker said in agreement. "I'm impressed with your abilities human. How would you like to test them against me?"

"Okay," Kwan said and readied himself for his second consecutive duel.

"Be careful Kwan," Danny said. "Skulker isn't nearly as crazy or bumbling as Technus."

"Relax. I've got this covered," Kwan said as he and Skulker began their duel.


	9. Chapter 9

Kwan and Skulker drew their opening hands and started with 4000 life points. "I'm going first human," Skulker said as he drew. "I summon Proto-cyber Dragon (ATK 1100)," he said and brought forth a serpentine robot made of black metal. "I also play two cards face down."

"My move," Kwan said as he drew. "I summon Obnoxious Celtic Guard and play the field spell Gaia Power," he said as a giant tree appeared next to them. "Gaia Power raises the attack strength of all Earth attribute monsters, such as Obnoxious Celtic Guard, by 500 points." Obnoxious Celtic Guards attack points rose to 1900.

"I activate my trap cards," Skulker said as his face down cards revealed themselves. "The first is Attack Reflector Unit. I use this trap to sacrifice Proto-cyber Dragon and summon Cyber Barrier Dragon (DEF 2800) from my deck in its place." Proto-cyber Dragon disappeared and was replaced by a serpentine robot made of white metal that had what looked like a satellite dish around its neck in a defensive stance.

"And now my other trap takes effect," Skulker continued. "It's called Cyber Summon Blaster. Every time I special summon a machine type monster, like I just did with Cyber Barrier Dragon, my opponent loses 300 life points." An energy cannon appeared in front of Skulker and fired a blast of energy at Kwan, lowering the asian jock's life points to 3700.

"I end my turn," Kwan said, frustrated that there wasn't more he could do. Skulker drew and passed his turn.

_That must be his plan, _Danny thought. _Skulker's biding his time until he draw something powerful enough to defeat Kwan. Kwan better come up with something good before then._

Kwan drew as his turn began. He couldn't do anything, so he passed. Skulker drew and passed as well.

"At this rate, we're going to be here all day," Tucker complained loudly.

"You better shut up before I make you shut up," Kwan threatened as he drew. "I play Reinforcements of the Army. This spell let's me add a level 4 warrior monster from my deck to my hand. And I select Gearrfried the Iron Knight and summon him to the field." Kwan said as did just that. "But he won't be around long. I play Release Restraint and tribute Gearfried the Iron Knight to summon Gearfried the Swordmaster (ATK 2600) from my deck."

Gearfried's armor collapsed off of him and bright light shone. When the light faded, the Iron Knight was replaced by a muscular, shirtless man with dark skin and long dark hair. Since Gearfried the Swordmaster was a light monster, he didn't get an attack boost from Gaia Power.

"Now I equip Gearfried with Divine Sword Phoenix Blade," Kwan said. A sword with a straight blade appeared in the Swordmaster's hand and increased his attack points to 2900. "When Gearfried the Swordmaster is combined with an equip spell, I get to destroy one of my opponent's monsters: like your Cyber Barrier Dragon."

"Too bad I won't give you that chance," Skulker said. "I play the quick play spell Mystic Wok. Before your monster's effect hits, I tribute Cyber Barrier Dragon and increase my life points by an amount equal to its defense points." Cyber Barrier Dragon disappeared and Skulker's life points rose to 6800.

"Nice move, but that doesn't stop me from attacking," Kwan said. He had both his monsters attack Skulker directly. When the attacks were done, Skulker's life points went down to 2000. With the damage done, Kwan ended his turn and Skulker drew.

"I summon Shining Angel (ATK 1400)," Skulker said and brought forth an angel with white clothes and two sets of golden wings. "Now I have Shining Angel attack your Obnoxious Celtic Guard."

"Why are you attacking my monster when he's stronger?" Kwan asked. Shining Angel charged into battle and was slashed by Obnoxious Celtic Guard. The battle lowered Skulker's life points to 1500.

"Because when Shining Angel is destroyed," Skulker began, "I get to summon a Light monster with less than 1500 attack points from my deck: such as a 2nd Proto-cyber Dragon," he said as his monster was summoned. This triggered Cyber Summon Blaster, which fired at Kwan again and reduced his life points to 3400. "Next I activate the quick play spell Inferno Reckless Summon. Because I just special summoned a monster with less than 1500 attack points, I get to summon every copy of that monster from my hand, deck and graveyard. Since Proto-cyber Dragon's effect changes its name to Cyber Dragon while its on the field, I now get to summon three Cyber Dragons (ATK 2100)."

_This could be bad,_ Kwan thought as Skulker's monsters materialized. The Cyber Dragons looked like Proto-cyber Dragon, but bigger and made of white metal. With three machine monsters special summoned, Cyber Summon Blaster fired three blasts at Kwan and reduced his life points to 2500.

"Cyber Dragon, attack Obnoxious Celtic Guard," Skulker ordered. One of his Cyber Dragons fired a blast of orange energy from its mouth that hit Obnoxious Celtic Guard. Kwan's life points went down to 2300, but Celtic Guard withstood the blast.

"Obnoxious Celtic Guards effect prevents it from being destroyed in battle by any monster with 1900 attack points or more," Kwan explained. He realized that his monster's effect was about to be used against him. Skulker had his remaining Cyber Dragons attack Obnoxious Celtic Guard and lower Kwan's life points to 1900.

"I'm not done yet," Skulker said. "I use the quick play spell Photon Generator Unit to sacrifice Proto-cyber Dragon and one Cyber Dragon to bring forth Cyber Laser Dragon (ATK 2400) from my deck." Skulker's two monsters vanished and were replaced by what looked liked a bigger, nastier version of Cyber Dragon. Once again, Cyber Summon Blaster activated, cutting Kwan's life points to 1600.

"Cyber Laser Dragon, attack Obnoxious Celtic Guard," Skulker ordered. Cyber Laser Dragon fired a large blast of blue energy from its mouth at Kwan's monster. The Celtic warrior survived the attack, but Kwan's life points went down to 1100. "I'm done attacking for now, but before I end my turn I'll use Cyber Laser Dragon's special effect. Once per turn, I can destroy a monster with more attack points than Cyber Laser Dragon: such as Gearfried the Swordmaster."

Cyber Laser Dragon unleashed a blue laser beam from its tail that hit Gearfried. After a few seconds, Gearfried the Swordmaster was destroyed. Skulker ended his turn and Kwan drew. The asian jock looked at the four cards in his hand and came up with a way to turn things around.

"I play two cards face down and activate The A. Forces," he said. "Now I summon Swift Gaia the Fierce Knight (ATK 2300)," Kwan said and brought forth a man with black skin and blue armor on top of a purple horse. The knight was wielding two red lances. The A. Forces spell raised Gaia and Celtic Guards attack strength to 2700 and 2300, respectively.

"Gaia is a 7 star monster. How were you able to summon him without tributes?" Skulker asked.

"When Gaia is the last card in my hand, I can normal summon him without any tributes," Kwan explained. "Before I attack, I remove two warriors in my graveyard from play so I can add Divine Sword Phoenix Blade to my hand," Kwan said as he removed both Gearfrieds. "Now I equip the Phoenix Blade to Swift Gaia."

Swift Gaia's lances were disappeared and were replaced by the Phoenix Blade, which increased the Fierce Knight's attack points to 3000. Kwan ordered Gaia to attack Cyber Laser Dragon. Swift Gaia charged into battle and slashed the mechanical dragon with his sword. He followed through by having Obnoxious Celtic Guard destroy one of the Cyber Dragons. Both battles had reduced Skulker's life points to 700.

Skulker was not pleased with this latest development. But that changed when he drew. He saw his new card and began laughing maniacally. "What's so funny?" Kwan asked.

"Allow me to show you," Skulker said. "I activate Overload Fusion. With this spell, I tribute as many machine monsters from my field and graveyard as I'm able to. Those monsters are removed from play so I can summon Chimeratech Overdragon (ATK ?)."

Skulker removed his remaining Cyber Dragon field and all the machine monsters in his graveyard. A huge mechanical dragon made of black metal with many heads coming from a central body in various directions appeared in front of Skulker. Before Cyber Summon Blaster could activate yet again, the trap card was destroyed.

"When Chimeratech Overdragon is summoned, all other cards on my field are destroyed," Skulker explained. "As for its attack points, it gets 800 for each monster I sacrificed, which adds up to a grand total of 5600. Chimeratech Overdragon, annihilate Swift Gaia."

"I activate one of my face downs," Kwan said as the massive mechanical monstrosity began charging an energy blast from one of its mouths. "I use Emergency Provisions to tribute my other face down, Phoenix Blade, Gaia Power and The A. Forces. For each one of those cards, I gain 1000 life points."

All of Kwan's spell cards disappeared from the field. Obnoxious Celtic Guard and Swift Gaia reverted to their original attack strengths and his life points rose to 5100. Chimeratech Overdragon fired a blue sphere of energy that destroyed Gaia and decreased Kwan's life points to 1800.

"If you think you've managed to save yourself, guess again," Skulker said. "Chimeratech Overdragon gets to attack one of my opponent's monsters for each monster tributed to summon it. I now attack Obnoxious Celtic Guard and end this duel."

the Overdragon fired another energy sphere from a different head that hit Celtic Guard. Kwan's monster survived, but he ran out of life points. He dropped to one knee and clutched his chest in pain as he began to disappear.

"Sorry guys," Kwan said to the rest of his group. "You better find a way to save me or I'll........" he stammered as he failed to come up with a way to finish. "Just please help me," he said before completely vanishing.

Star dropped down to her knees and began sobbing at seeing her boyfriend be taken. The rest of them were numbed by the sight of seeing one of their own fall: a fate that could happen to any of them.


	10. Chapter 10

After some time spent crying, Star stood up. "You son of a toaster oven!" Star screamed at Skulker. "Kwan may have been a brainless dolt, but he was my brainless dolt." Star materialized the arms of her amulet. "It's go time transistor breath."

"No Star," Danny said as he also readied his amulet. "Let me take Skulker."

"Oh I've been waiting for this for a very long time," Skulker said with a grin on his mechanical face as he prepared to face his long time foe.

"Fine," Star said as she stood down and walked away. "But if you screw up, I get my turn."

"Agreed," Danny said as he and Skulker drew their opening hands and began with 4000 life points.

"I'm going first," Skulker said as drew. "I summon a monster face down and end my turn."

Danny drew as his turn began. "I summon Destiny Hero Diamond Dude and activate his special effect," he said as he took a look at the top card of his deck. "Since this is a normal spell card, I get to put it in my graveyard and use it at the beginning of my next turn. Now Diamond Dude, attack Skulker's face down monster."

The crystalline Destiny Hero charged into battle and revealed Skulker's face down monster to be Shining Fairy, which was quickly dispatched. "Now I get to use my monster's effect to summon another one," Skulker said as he searched through his deck for the card he wanted. "I summon Satellite Cannon (ATK 0)."

A giant satellite appeared on the field, hovering roughly 300 feet above Danny and Skulker. "What's that card do?" Danny asked as he craned his neck to look at Satellite Cannon.

"I'm glad you asked," Skulker said as he drew. "Satellite Cannon cannot be destroyed in battle by any monster with less than 8 stars. And while it doesn't have any attack points now, that will change in time. For now, I change my Cannon to defense mode and play the continuos spell Future Fusion. This spell let's me take fusion material monsters, such as the three Cyber Dragons, from my deck and send them to the graveyard. In two turns, I'll be able to summon the fusion creature they combine into."

Danny drew. "Now I get to use Terraforming spell I discarded last turn," he said. "I add a field spell from my deck to my hand. I select Clock Tower Prison and play it." Danny's field spell created a building all around him and Skulker. There was also a clock tower right behind Danny. "I play one card face down and end my turn."

Skulker drew. As the mechanical ghost's turn began, the clock tower turned to three o clock and gave out a ring. "Whenever my opponent's turn begins," Danny began, "Clock Tower Prison gets one counter on it."

"That won't help you when my next turn begins," Skulker said. "I pass my turn."

"If Danny doesn't do something good this turn," Tucker said, "he'll have to deal with Skulker's fusion monster soon."

"I'm sure he has a plan," Sam said. _Please have a plan Danny, _she mentally pleaded.

Danny drew as his turn began. "I play Destiny Draw," he said. "I discard Destiny Hero Captain Tenacious from my hand and get to draw two cards." Danny did just that. "I end my turn."

Skulker drew as Clock Tower Prison turned to six o clock and rang. "Now it's time to bring out my ultimate monster," Skulker said. "I summon Cyber End Dragon (ATK 4000)." A huge metallic winged dragon with three heads appeared in front of Skulker. "Cyber End Dragon, destroy Diamond Dude."

"I activate my face down," Danny said as Cyber End Dragon charged energy in each of its mouths. "Eternal Dread. This trap instantly adds two counters to Clock Tower Prison."

"That's not going to help you," Skulker said. The blasts from Cyber End Dragon came together to form a colossal blast. The blast destroyed Diamond Dude, which made a spacial distortion come from the Clock Tower that prevented Danny from losing life points. "What just happened?"

"When Clock Tower Prison has four counters on it, I don't take any battle damage," Danny explained. Skulker ended his turn in frustration and Danny drew. "I play Heavy Storm, which destroys all spells and traps on the field."

A storm appeared in the center of the field that destroyed both Clock Tower Prison and Future Fusion. Without Future Fusion to keep it on the field, Cyber End Dragon was destroyed. When Danny's field spell was destroyed, it exploded.

"When Clock Tower Prison is destroyed after having four counters on it," Danny began, "I get to special summon a monster from my deck. Skulker, say hello to Destiny Hero Dreadmaster (ATK ?)." Out of the rubble of the Clock Tower Prison came a muscular, shirtless man with brown skin and chains on his wrists. "When Dreadmaster is summoned because of Clock Tower Prison, I get to summon two Destiny Heroes from my graveyard," he said as he summoned Diamond Dude and Captain Tenacious.

"So what?" Skulker taunted.

"Let me explain," Danny began. "Dreadmaster's attack strength is equal to the combined original attack points of every other Destiny Hero I have on the field. With Tenacious and Diamond Dude out, Dreadmaster's attack strength is 2200. And it gets better. Dreadmaster is a 8 star monster, meaning he's capable of destroying your Satellite Cannon. Which I'll do right now."

Dreadmaster leapt into the air and smashed Satellite Cannon to bits. Danny followed through by having Captain Tenacious and Diamond Dude attack Skulker directly, lowering the mechanical ghost's life points to 1800. Danny ended his turn and Skulker drew.

"I play one card face down and end my turn," Skulker said. Danny drew as his turn began. "I activate my trap: Metal Reflect Slime. This is a special breed of card known as a trap monster. I now play it as if it were a monster." Skulker placed Metal Reflect Slime in his monster card zone and what looked like a giant metal, spikey booger appeared before him. "Metal Reflect Slime is in defense mode and has a defensive strength of 3000."

_Well that's just great, _Danny thought as he looked at the cards in his hand. _I don't have anything capable of getting past that ugly glob of gook, but this card might come in handy. _"I play one card face down and end my turn," he said.

Skulker drew. "I play Metamorphosis. This spell let's me trade in a monster of mine for one from my fusion deck with the same number of stars. Since Metal Reflect Slime is a 10 star monster, I get to summon a 10 star fusion monster. In other words, I'm bringing back Cyber End Dragon." Metal Reflect Slime vanished and was replaced by Cyber End Dragon. "Cyber End Dragon, attack Destiny Hero Captain Tenacious."

Cyber End Dragon fired a blast from each of its mouths at Captain Tenacious. Danny's monster was destroyed in a big explosion that decreased his life points to 800.

"I activate my trap, Damage Condenser," he said. "I discard one card from my hand and get to summon a monster from my deck with attack points equal to or less than the amount of life points I just lost. I summon Destiny Hero Dasher (ATK 2100)."

Danny brought forth what looked like a humanoid black motorcycle with wheels near its feet and hands. With Dasher on the field, Dreadmaster's attack points became 3500.

"Even with your new creature, Dreadmaster isn't powerful enough to destroy Cyber End Dragon," Skulker said as he ended his turn.

"Then I'll just have to make him stronger," Danny said as he drew. "I play Dark City," he said and caused many building silhouettes to appear around the field. "When a Destiny Hero attacks a stronger monster, they get an extra 1000 points from Dark City. Dreadmaster, attack Cyber End Dragon," Danny ordered. Dreadmaster charged forward and destroyed the mechanical dragon with a powerful punch. "Dasher, attack Skulker directly." Dasher sped towards his target and struck Skulker with a swipe, sending Skulker's life points down to 0.

Skulker let out a low chuckle as he began evaporating. "Enjoy this victory while you can ghost child, because it won't last long," the mechanical ghost said. "There are still several soul collectors left, some more powerful than me. You haven't won at all. What a waste of time," Skulker said as he began laughing maniacally before completely vanishing.

"Let's move on," Danny said and the group began walking again.


	11. Chapter 11

The group resumed their trek to stop the Chaos Emperor Dragon. It wasn't long before they were stopped by two people they weren't expecting: Valerie and Danni.

"What are you doing here Valerie?" Star asked. "Last time I saw you you were in the hospital. And who is that little girl with you and why does she look so much like Danny?"

"I can explain that," Danny said. "To make a long story short, the little girl is my cousin. As for what they're doing here, Aragon probably got to them."

"Correct," Valerie replied. "One of the soul collectors got to me and separated my spirit and body. I would have been used as food for the Chaos Emperor Dragon, but Aragon sensed something special about me and decided I could be of better use as a soul collector."

"Same story for me," Danni said and readied her amulet. "So which one of you wants to go first? It doesn't matter to us because this is as far as you go."

"I'll face you," Jazz said. Even though this was her first time meeting her brother's clone, Jazz had heard of Danni. Jazz had a plan: she was going to save Danni from her mind control then find her soul when then they were done with this whole mess.

"I accept your challenge," Danni said. She and Jazz got into position, drew their opening hands and started with 4000 life points. "I'll go first," she said as she drew. "I summon Royal Magical Library in defense mode (DEF 2000)," she said and brought forth a large book shelf to shield herself.

Jazz drew. "I summon Miracle Jurassic Egg in defense mode (DEF 2000)," the red head said and made a giant egg appear in front of her. "Next, I play Graceful Charity so I can draw three cards and discard two." Jazz did just that and four points of light appeared on Miracle Jurassic Egg and one point of light on Royal Magical Library.

"My monster gets a spell counter on it every time a spell card is played," Danni explained.

"Well my monster gets two counters on it every time one of my dinosaurs goes to the graveyard," Jazz said. "Since I discarded two with Graceful Charity, that's a total of four."

Danni drew as her turn began. "I play Meteor Of Destruction, which inflicts 1000 points of damage to you," Danni said. An orb of black energy appeared above them and collided into Jazz, decreasing her life points to 3000. Another spell counter was added to Royal Magical Library. "I also play Pot Of Greed, which let's me draw two cards. Now that my monster has three spell counters on it, I get rid of all those and draw another card. With that out of the way, I summon Kyco The Ghost Destroyer (ATK 1800) and end my turn."

Danni's new monster was a monk in purple robes with a mask over the left side of his face. Jazz drew as her turn began.

"I use Destroyersaurus's special effect," she said. "I discard it from my hand and can add the Jurassic World field spell to my hand," Jazz explained as two more counters were added to Miracle Jurassic Egg. She also played Jurassic World and covered the field in a prehistoric jungle. "Now that my monster has 6 counters on it, I sacrifice it to summon a 6 star dinosaur from my deck: such as Dark Driceratops (ATK 2400, increased to 2700)."

Miracle Jurassic Egg hatched and emitted a bright light. When the light faded, the egg had been replaced by a green dinosaur with a bird's beak and feathers. "Dark Driceratops, attack Kyco the Ghost Destroyer," Jazz ordered. Dark Driceratops charged into battle and trampled Kyco into oblivion, lowering Danni's life points to 3100 in the process.

"My move," Danni said as she drew. "I sacrifice Royal Magical Library to summon Dark Magician Girl (ATK 2000)." The Library vanished and was replaced by a young woman with blond hair and a wooden staff in a rather skimpy blue outfit with a matching pointed hat. "Next, I play Sage's Stone. Now that Dark Magician Girl is on the field, I can use this spell to summon Dark Magician from my deck."

Danni's spell card brought forth a man in a form fitting purple outfit, also with a pointed hat and staff. "Your new monster's still not strong enough to get past Dark Driceratops," Jazz pointed out.

"Which is why I equip him with Magic Formula and raise his attack points by 700," Danni said while Dark Magician's attack strength became 3200. "Dark Magician, attack Dark Driceratops," she ordered. Dark Magician fired a bolt of black magic that destroyed Jazz's monster. Danni followed through by having Dark Magician Girl attack directly. Both battles left Jazz with only 500.

Jazz drew. "I summon Sabersaurus (ATK 1900, increased to 2200)," Jazz said and brought forth a red triceratops with sword-like horns and a spear like tail. "Sabersaurus, destroy Dark Magician Girl," Jazz said. Sabersaurs charged its target and impaled the female spell caster with its horns, decreasing Danni's life points to 2900. "I play one card face down and end my turn."

Danni drew. "Time to finish you off," she said. "Dark Magician, attack."

"I activate my trap: Zero Gravity," Jazz said. "This trap makes all monsters change modes. With Dark Magician now in defense mode, your done attacking me for now." Both Sabersaurus and Dark Magician took defensive stances.

"I end my turn," Danni said in frustration. Jazz drew.

"I play Big Evolution Pill," Jazz said. "With this spell, I sacrifice Sabersaurus and can now normal summon any dinosaur monster without any tributes. Say hello to Black Tyranno (ATK 2600, increased to 2900)." Sabersaurus disappeared and was replaced by a tyrannosaurus covered in black scales. "And Black Tyranno has a special effect. If my opponent only has defense monsters on the field, it can attack directly."

_oh no, _Danni thought as she realized that she was about to be defeated. Jazz ordered Black Tyranno to attack. The large lizard ran forward, bypassed Dark Magician and struck Danni with a tail swipe. The attack eliminated all of the brain washed ghost girl's life points.

"I'm sorry about this Danielle," Jazz said as Danni began evaporating. "When we stop Aragon and the Chaos Emperor Dragon, I'll save you and then we can do something together as cousins. How about that?"

"How about you kiss my..........." Danni began but was interrupted as she finished disappearing.

"You're going to pay for that," Valerie said as she readied her amulet and approached Jazz.

"No Valerie," Star said and readied her amulet. Valerie was her friend and if anyone was going to face her, it would be the blond. "Why don't you face me instead?"

"All right," Valerie said and walked away from Jazz and. "I'll deal with you, then the red head."


	12. Chapter 12

Star and Valerie drew their opening hands and began with 4000 life points. "I'll go first," Valerie said. "I play a face down monster and a face down card."

Star drew. "I summon Absorbing Kid from the Sky (ATK 1300)," she said. Her monster looked like a little fat asian boy with wings. "Absorbing Kid, attack Valerie's face down monster," Star ordered. Absorbing Kid fired a blast of light from his hands that revealed Valerie's monster to be Shining Angel, which was quickly destroyed.

"I activate my trap, Soul Rope," Valerie said. "When one of my monsters is destroyed, Soul Rope let's me summon a 4 star monster from my deck in exchange for 1000 life points. And I summon X-head Cannon (ATK 1800)." Valerie's life points went down to 3000 and a yellow robot with a human torso, a round lower half and two long blaster canons on its shoulders appeared in front of the dark skinned girl.

"And that's not all," Valerie continued. "With Shining Angel destroyed, I get to summon another monster. Say hello to Z-metal Tank (ATK 1500)," she said and brought forth a yellow tank.

"Well my monster has a special effect too," Star said. "Since Absorbing Kid destroyed a 4 star monster, I gain 1200 life points," the blond girl explained as her life points increased to 5200. "I end my turn."

"Good," Valerie said as she drew. "I play the continuos spell Soul Absorbsion and summon Y-dragon Head (ATK 1500)." Valerie's new monster was a red mechanical dragon. "Now I remove all three of my monsters from my play to XYZ-dragon Cannon." Y-dragon Head perched on top of Z-metal Tank, then X-head Cannon landed on top of Y-dragon Head. "And it gets better. Soul Absorbsion gives me 500 life points every time a card is removed from play, so now I gain 1500."

"Look's like Star will get to see Kwan again sooner than she thought," Tucker said as Valerie's life points rose to 4500.

"Shut up Foley," Star yelled.

"If you two are done, I'd like to continue," Valerie said. "Before I attack, I use Dragon Cannon's effect. I discard a card from my hand and destroy any card on the field: like your Absorbing Kid from the Sky." Valerie discarded a card and Absorbing Kid was destroyed. "Since the card I discarded was Ojamagic, I get to add three new cards to my hand: one each of Ojama's Green, Black and Yellow."

"Why would you have those cards in your deck?" Star asked as Valerie added them to her hand.

"They make good fodder for Dragon Cannon's effect," Valerie explained. "Let me show you," she said as she discarded Ojama Yellow to pay for Dragon Cannon's effect.

"I activate my trap," Star said before Valerie could pick a target. "Ultimate Offering."

"Why would Star play that?" Jazz asked out loud. "That trap isn't going to stop Valerie's monster."

"But revealing it might prevent Valerie from destroying it," Danny said. "That trap is available for both players to use. Valerie might not destroy it if she thinks it will come in handy later."

This proved to be true for Valerie destroyed Star's other face down card instead, which was revealed to be Draining Shield. With nothing left in her way, Valerie attacked Star directly. XYZ-dragon Cannon fired several blasts of energy from several different cannons that lowered Star's life points to 2400. Valerie ended her turn and Star drew.

"I summon Glen Duo (ATK 1700)," Star said and brought forth two annoyingly cute creatures, one green and one pink. "Now I use Ultimate Offering to pay 500 life points so I can summon an additional monster. And thanks to Glen Duo's effect to serve as two tributes when sacrificed to summon a fairy type light attribute monster, I now summon Majestic Mech Goryu (ATK 2900)."

Star's life points went down to 1900 as Glen Duo vanished. In in its place was a large serpentine mechanical dragon with a segmented body and feathered wings at the end on each segment.

"Goryu, attack XYZ-dragon Cannon," Star ordered. The Majestic Mech fired a blast of golden energy at the Dragon Cannon that destroyed its target and decreased Valerie's life points to 4400.

Valerie drew as her turn began. _Aw hell, _she thought as she looked at her hand. _I've got something capable of defeating my former friend, but I'll have to wait till next turn to use it._

"I play one face down card and summon Gear Golem the Moving Fortress in defense mode (DEF 2200)," Valerie said as she brought forth a mechanical monster protected by a spiked wall.

"That won't stop me for long," Star said as she drew. "I summon Hysteric Fairy (ATK 1800)." Star's new creature was a young woman in a blue skirt and shirt with glasses and wings. "Now I equip her with Cetus Of Dagla, which increased her attack strength to 2300." she said as two curved blades appeared in her hands. "To make things even better, I gain life points equal to any battle damage Hysteric Fairy inflicts on you."

"Goryu, destroy Valerie's defensive monster," Star ordered, prompting Goryu to blast the Moving Fortress into oblivion. "Just so you know, even though your monster was in defense mode, you still take battle damage due to Goryu's special effect. Now Hysteric Fairy, direct attack." Hysteric Fairy charged forward and slashed Valerie. Both battles had reduced Valerie's life points to 1400, while Star's increased to 4200.

"If you think you've got me beat, guess again," Valerie said as she drew. "This is even better than what I had in mind. I play Graceful Charity so I can draw 3 cards then discard 2." Valerie drew her cards then discarded her remaining Ojamas. "Now I summon V-tiger Jet (ATK 1600)," she said and brought forth a white mechanical tiger with jet engines in its legs. "Next I use your Ultimate Offering trap to summon W-wing Catapult (ATK 800)." Valerie's life points went down to 900 as what looked like a blue jet with a launcher of some kind on it appeared in front of her.

"I'm not even close to done yet," Valerie said. "I activate my trap, Return From the Different Dimension. I cut my life points in half and get to summon as many of my monsters as possible that were removed from play." Valerie's life points were halved to 450 as X-head Cannon, Y-dragon Head and Z-metal Tank manifested in front of her.

As soon as all her monster card zones were filled, Valerie removed all her machines from play. The X, Y and Z monsters once again combined into XYZ-dragon Cannon as the V and W ones combined into VW-tiger Catapult (ATK 2000). Valerie's newest combined machine was simply V-tiger Jet on top of W-wing Catapult. Since she removed 5 monsters from play, Soul Absorbsion gave her 2500 life points, putting her at 2950.

"I get the feeling that this is going to suck," Star said.

"You don't know the half of it," Valerie said with a grin. "I remove both of my monsters from play to summon V-Z Dragon Catapult Cannon (ATK 3000)." XYZ-dragon Cannon and VW-tiger Catapult split apart and all 5 monsters combined. The end result was a massive humanoid machine with two claw for hands and cannons on its waist. With two more monsters removed, Soul Absorbsion put Valerie's life points at 3950.

"Now I use V-Z Dragon Catapult Cannon Cannon's effect to remove Majestic Mech Goryu from my play," Valerie said. Goryu disappeared from the field and Valerie gained another 500 life points from Soul Absorbsion, putting her at 4450. "Dragon Catapult Cannon, attack Hysteric Fairy." Valerie's monster fired its cannons and destroyed Hysteric Fairy, decreasing Star's life points to 3500.

"Looks like Star isn't going to make it," Paulina said. "At least she put up a good fight."

"She might be able to turn things around," Jazz said. "If she gets a miracle on her side."


	13. Chapter 13

Star drew as her turn began. _This is not good,_ the blond thought as she looked at her hand. _I don't have anything that can take down V-Z Catapult Dragon Cannon or stop it from attacking me. Still, I have to try._

"I play one monster face down and end my turn," Star said.

Valerie drew and grimaced in disgust as she failed to draw a low level monster. "I use Catapult Dragon Cannon's effect to remove your face down monster." Star's defensive creature vanished from the field as Soul Absorbsion gave Valerie yet another 500 life points. Valerie's new total was 4950. The dark skinned girl then prompted her monster to attack Star directly. V-Z Catapult Dragon Cannon fired its blasters at Star, leaving her with only 500 life points left. "If you want to surrender now, please feel free to."

_Maybe I should, _Star thought. _There's no way I can beat Star now. Not only does she have that powerful monster, but she has nearly 10 times as many life points as me. Maybe they'll go easy on me if I surrender: brain wash me into a soul collector instead of sucking out my soul for dragon chow. _Star moved her hand towards her deck, preparing to place it over the deck in the traditional sign of surrender.

"Don't do it Star," Danny shouted, knowing what she was about to do. "If you give up, you won't be able to help Valerie. She'll stay brain washed until her usefulness is gone, then her soul will be used to try and revive the Chaos Emperor Dragon."

_He's right, _Star thought as she stopped her hand. _The stakes are too high for me to consider giving up. I'd rather go down fighting than just stand aside and let these bastards win._

Star drew and was pleased to see that her resolution had rewarded her. "I play Pot Of Greed and draw two more cards," Star said as she did so. "Next, I summon Manju of The Ten Thousand Hands (ATK 1400)," she said as a gray man with many arms appeared before her. "When Manju is summoned, I get to add a ritual spell or monster from my deck to my hand," Star explained as she did just that.

"Now I play the ritual spell Shinato's Ark," Star continued. "I tribute Manju and Dunames Dark Witch from my hand. In exchange, I summon Shinato, King of a Higher Plane (ATK 3300)." Manju vanished from the field and his place appeared a man with 8 golden angel wings, blue skin and tied back hair. "Shinato, attack V-Z Catapult Dragon Cannon," the blond girl ordered. Shinato created a ring of red energy and threw it at the Catapult Dragon Cannon. The mechanical monster was destroyed and Valerie's life points went down to 4650.

"Don't think you've won just yet," Valerie said as she drew. Unfortunately for her, her hand wasn't capable of backing up her bravado. "I play my 2nd copy of X-head Cannon in defense mode (DEF 1000)," Valerie said as the creature manifested in front of her. She ended her turn and Star drew.

"I summon Mudora (ATK 1500)" Star said as she brought forth a man in gold armor wielding a short sword. "Because of his effect, Mudora gains 200 points for every fairy monster in my graveyard. With five fairies in my graveyard, Mudora gets 1000 extra attack points. And that's not all: I play Fairy of the Spring. This let's me return an equip spell in my graveyard to my hand."

Star retrieved Cetus of Dagla then equipped it to Mudora. His sword disappeared and was replaced by two curved blades in each hand. With the attack boosts from his own effect and the equip spell, Mudora's new attack strength was 3000.

"Shinato, destroy X-head Cannon," Star ordered. Shinato formed another ring of red energy that obliterated X-head Cannon. "Now Shinato's special effect comes into play. When Shinato destroys a monster in defense mode, that monster's attack points are subtracted from my opponent's life points," she explained as Valerie's life points decreased to 2850.

"But now I have less life points than Mudora has attack points," Valerie said in apprehension.

"Exactly," Star said. "Mudora, end this duel." Mudora charged forward and slashed Valerie, sending the dark haired girl's life points down to 0.

"Very well played Star" Valerie said as she began evaporating. "I would have loved to fight beside you as we both served the Chaos Emperor Dragon. Too bad things didn't turn out like that. One of the other soul collectors will defeat you and if not them, then lord Aragon himself. And when that happens, I'll be waiting to greet you," Valerie said without an ounce of malice in her expression as she completely disappeared.

_I'm sorry it had to come to this Valerie, _Star thought. _Once we kick the but of the guy who brain washed you in the first place, I'll come save you. I promise._

With that out of the way, the group of six continued their journey forward. It wasn't long before they were stopped by another two challengers. This time, it was Penelope Spectra (in her shadowy form) and her foot stool toadie Bertrand.

"Well, if it isn't the ghost boy and his little friends," Spectra said with grin.

"Hello Spectra, you sadistic bitch," Danny countered. "Let me guess: you're here to stop us, we don't stand a chance, yadda yadda yadda," Danny said mockingly.

"Cute. I despise cute," Spectra said flatly. "Before we move on, I just want to say congratulations to Star for her recent victory over her best friend. That must have been difficult, especially since you have no talent for this game."

"Why you..." Star began, then stopped as she realized that she had heard this before. "Wait. Are you Ms. Spectra, the old guidance counselor?"

"You remember me," Spectra said joyfully. "You should have taken my advice and given up this game. Because you didn't, you are about to experience new understandings of humiliation."

"I almost took your advice," Star said. "I nearly gave up my dreams of playing Duel Monsters professionally because you told me that I had no talent and would be better off going with a profession that relied on my looks. But then I saw you how everyone in the school was miserable with you around and realized you were full of shit. Now I'm going to make you pay for having me doubt myself, you bitch!"

"I already covered that part Star," Danny pointed out.

"Don't care!" Star yelled as she prepared her amulet.

"Not so fast blondie," Bertrand said. "You just went, so why don't you wait your turn while I go. And if it's all the same to the rest of you, I'd like to face the red head because she impressed me in her duel against that little doupleganger."

"Okay," Jazz said as she stepped forward. Both of them readied their amulets and got into position.


	14. Chapter 14

Jazz and Bertrand drew their opening hands and began with 4000 life points each. "I'll go first," Bertrand said as he drew. "I play a monster face down."

Jazz drew. "I summon Hydrogeddon and have it attack your monster," Jazz said. Hydrogeddon fired a stream of brown water that hit Bertrand's monster, revealing it to be Nimble Momanga (DEF 100), a flying squirrel which was shortly destroyed.

"You just activated my monster's effect," Bertrand said with a grin. "When Nimble Momanga is destroyed, I gain 1000 life points and get to bring every other Nimble Momanga in my deck to the field." The short shape shifter's life points increased to 5000 and the other two Momangas appeared on the field in face down defense mode.

"Big deal," Jazz said. "When Hydrogeddon destroys a monster, I get to summon another from my deck," she said as she summoned her 2nd Hydrogeddon. She had her fresh creature destroy another Nimble Momanga.

With that, Jazz summoned her 3rd Hydrogeddon and had it destroy Bertrand's last Nimble Momanga. With all of his Momangas destroyed, Bertrand now had 7000 life points.

"Not a great start," Sam said. "The duel just began and Jazz is behind by 3000 life points."

"That is true, but life points aren't everything," Tucker said. "Jazz may only have 4000 life points to Bertrand's 7000, but she has three monsters to his zero."

"Not for long," Bertrand said as he drew. "I summon Berserk Gorilla (ATK 2000)," he said and brought forth a red gorilla. "Berserk Gorilla, attack a Hydrogeddon." Berserk Gorilla unleashed a stream of flame from its mouth that destroyed Hydrogeddon and lowered Jazz's life points to 3600.

Jazz drew. "I sacrifice my remaining Hydrogeddons to summon Super Conductor Tyranno (ATK 3300)," the brainy red head said. Both of her Hydrogeddons disappeared and were replaced by a large green dinosaur in steel armor and a spiked ball on the end of its tail. "Super Conductor Tyranno, attack Berserk Gorilla," Jazz ordered. Her monster unleashed a blast of lightning from its mouth that destroyed Berserk Gorilla and decreasing Bertrand's life points to 5700.

Bertrand didn't say anything as he drew and played another monster in face down defense mode. Jazz drew.

"I play one card face down and summon Oxygeddon (ATK 1800)," Jazz said. Her new creature was a pteratactdol with longer legs that was made out of green air. "Super Conductor Tyranno, destroy Bertrand's monster," she ordered. Super Conductor Tyranno fired a lightning blast that revealed the face down monster to be Des Koala (DEF 1800) before it was destroyed.

"By revealing my monster, you activated its effect," Bertrand said with an evil grin. "You now lose 400 life points for every card in your hand." With four cards in her hand Jazz lost 1600 life points, putting her at 2000.

Jazz had a frustrated expression on her face as she had Oxygeddon attack Bertrand directly. Oxygeddon unleashed a stream of green air that hit Bertrand and sent his life points down to 3900.

_This isn't going good, _Jazz thought as she went over the duel was going in her head. _I'm not depleting his life points quickly enough. At this rate, I'm going to lose._ Jazz ended her turn and Bertrand drew.

"I play Graceful Charity so I can draw three cards and discard two," he said as he did just that. "Next, I play the Forrest field spell." A forrest appeared around the two of them. "This field spell raises the attack and defense points of all my beast monsters. But before we get to that, I play Hammer Shot and destroy your Super Conductor Tyranno."

_Damn, _Jazz cursed in her head as her powerful monster was destroyed.

"I summon Alligator Sword (ATK 1500, increased to 1700)," Bertrand continued as he summoned a humanoid lizard wielding a short curved sword. "Alligator Sword, attack Oxygeddon."

Alligator Sword moved in to strike Oxygeddon. The reptilian monster was hit by a flap of the gaseous dinosaur's wing, destroying it and lowering Bertrand's life points to 3800. "Why did you do that?" Jazz asked.

"Because when I have a beast type monster destroyed," Bertrand began, "I get to pay 1000 life points to summon Green Baboon, Defender of the Forrest (ATK 2600, increased to 2800)." Bertrand's life points went down to 2800 and a green ape with a club appeared in front of him. "Green Baboon, destroy Oxygeddon."

Green Baboon rushed forward and smashed Oxygeddon with its club. This sent Jazz's life points down to 1000. Jazz drew as her turn began.

"I activate my trap, Survival Instinct," she said. "I remove all my dinosaur monsters in my graveyard from play and gain 400 life points for each one." Jazz removed all her dinosaurs from play. With five dinos, her life points increased to 3000.

"And that's not all," the red head continued. "I summon Tyranno Infinity (ATK ?)," Jazz said as she brought forth a brown tyrannosaurus that was pulsating with energy. "Tyranno Infinity's attack strength is equal to the number of dinosaurs I have removed from play times 1000," Jazz explained as her monster's attack points became 5000. "Tyranno Infinity, attack Green Baboon," she ordered. Her monster ran and bit Green Baboon, destroying it and leaving Bertrand with only 600 life points.

"All right," Star said giddyingly. "Jazz is about to beat that disgusting lackie to that manipulative bitch."

"She hasn't beaten me yet," Bertrand said as he drew. "I play Pot of Greed," he said and drew two cards. Once he got his cards, he began laughing maniacally.

"What's so funny?" Tucker asked.

"Let me show you," Bertrand said. "I play Polymerization and fuse Bid Koala and Des Kangaroo to summon Master of Oz (ATK 4200, increased to 4400)." Bertrand sent the two monsters to his graveyard and a giant koala dressed as a boxer appeared in front of him.

"That is a powerful monster," Jazz said. "But even with the boost from Forrest, it's not strong enough to over power Tyranno Infinity."

"Which is why I equip him with Wild Nature's Release," Bertrand said as he played the equip spell. "Wild Nature's Release increases Master of Oz's attack points by an amount equal to his defense points. With the power boost from Forrest, he has 3900 defense points which now get added to his attack points," he explained as a fiery aura appeared around Master of Oz that rose his attack points to 8100.

_Oh no,_ Jazz thought she did some quick math and knew that she was about to be defeated. Bertrand ordered Master of Oz to attack. The super powered monster pulled back its fist and punched Tyranno Infinity into oblivion, along with Jazz's life points.

"I'm sorry Danny," Jazz said as she began evaporating. "I did my best to help with you with this, and I don't regret coming along. I'm sure that you'll overcome this crisis like you've done with so many in the past." With that, Jazz completely disappeared.

"You're going to pay for that you little sleaze ball!" Danny yelled at Bertrand.

"You're going to have to wait your turn Danny," Spectra said as she readied her amulet. "I have a spoiled blond brat to defeat."

"We'll see about that," Star said as she prepared her amulet and stood across from Spectra.


	15. Chapter 15

Star and Spectra drew their opening hands and began with 4000 life points each. "Why don't you go first," Spectra offered.

"Okay," Star said as she drew. "I summon Hysteric Fairy." Star's monster appeared before her and she ended her turn.

"My go," Spectra said as she drew. "I discard one Thunder Dragon from my hand so that I can replace it with two more from my deck." The shadowy female discarded her card and added the extras. "Now I Polymerization to fuse them together into Twin Headed Thunder Dragon (ATK 2800)."

A large red dragon with two heads and a horn on each one appeared in front of Spectra. "Oh dear," Star said as she gazed at her opponent's more powerful creature.

"It gets worse," Spectra said with a grin. "I sacrifice Twin Headed Thunder Dragon to summon Great Maju Garzett (ATK ?)." The two headed dragon vanished and was replaced by a humanoid demon with black skin, long hair and very muscular arms. "Great Maju Garzett's attack points are equal to the amount of the monster tributed to summon it doubled," Spectra explained as her monster's attack strength became 5600.

As it's power was determined, Great Maju Garzett grew in size. It stopped when it towered over the two duelists, as well as Star's monster. Spectra ordered her monster to attack. Great Maju Garzett brought back its fist and destroyed Hysteric Fairy with an explosive punch. When the dust settled, Star's monster was gone and she had a mere 200 life points left.

"Look's like she isn't going to make it," Sam said.

"Don't count her out yet, blanca," Paulina said. "Star is very good at this game, as she proved when she beat Valerie. She's even hoping to go pro one day. So believe me when I say that she has a few tricks up her sleeve to come back from this."

Star didn't say anything as she drew with a determined look on her face. "I play Mind Control," she said. "Now your monster comes over to my side of the field for the rest of this turn," she explained as Great Maju Garzett floated to its new placement in front of Star. "Now I tribute it with Mystic Wok so its attack points can be added to my life points." The powerful fiend creature disappeared as Star's life points escalated to a cushy 5800.

"That was one hell of a combo," Spectra complemented. "Maybe your not as hopeless as I thought."

"You bet I'm not, because I'm not done yet," Star declared. "I summon Shining Angel and have him attack you directly." The angelic monster appeared before Star then took flight and struck Spectra, lowering her life points to 2600. "Take that, you bitch."

Spectra didn't say anything as she drew. "I summon Slate Warrior (ATK 1900)," she said and brought forth a humanoid with a blue face, a gold clothed chest, green sleeves wielding a staff. "Slate Warrior, attack Shining Angel," Spectra ordered. Her monster unleashed a powerful gust of wind from his staff that destroyed Shining Angel and decreased Star's life points to 5300.

"Now to summon my monster," Star said. "I bring out Freya, Spirit of Victory (ATK 100)." A young woman with blue hair in a blue and black dress with two red pom poms appeared where Shining Angel once stood. "When Freya is on the field, she strengthens all of my fairy monsters by 400 points, including herself."

"Do you really expect that to stop me?" Spectra taunted as Freya's attack points rose to 500.

"Of course I do," Star said as she drew. "I summon Shining Abyss (ATK 1600, increased to 2000)," she said and brought forth a creature with a golden pair of wings, a human like torso and a round lower half. "Shining Abyss, attack."

Shining Abyss fired a blast of light from its hands that destroyed Slate Warrior. "Any monster that destroys Slate Warrior has its attack points reduced by 500," Spectra explained with a grin as Shining Abyss was weakened to 1500. Star didn't seem affected by this as she directed Freya to attack directly. The Spirit of Victory went up to Spectra and struck with her pom poms. The result of both battles reduced the malevolent female's life points to 2000.

"Just so you know," Star began, "thanks to Freya's effect, you have to go through Shining Abyss before getting to her."

"Too bad that's not going to help you," Spectra said as she drew. "I summon The Fiend Megacyber (ATK 2200)," she said as a humanoid with black skin in gold armor that had spikes on the shoulders and chin appeared in front of her.

"How did you just summon a 6 star monster with no tribute?"

"Because if my opponent has two more monsters than me, like you did, Fiend Megacyber can be special summoned. And I also summon Mad Dog of Darkness to join him."

Spectra's new creature appeared on the field. She had Fiend Megacyber attack Shining Abyss. The gold armored monster destroyed the odd fairy with a mighty punch. With that out of the way, Spectra directed Mad Dog to attack Freya. The frenzied canine trampled the Spirit of Victory into oblivion. Both battles subtracted Star's life points to 3200.

"Don't think that you've beaten me yet," Star stated defiantly as she drew. "I play one monster face down and end my turn."

"That's the best you can do?" Spectra asked mockingly as she drew. "I summon Reflect Bounder (ATK 1700)," she said as she brought forth a mechanical humanoid with a red cape and many mirrors on its body. "Now I'll have Fiend Megacyber destroy your defensive monster."

The Fiend Megacyber charged into battle and brought back its fist. As his blow was about to connect, Star's monster was revealed to be Glen Duo. A force field manifested in front of the celestial monster that repelled Fiend Megacyber's punch.

"What just happened?" Spectra asked.

"Glen Duo is indestructible as long as I don't take any damage," Star explained. Spectra ended her turn in frustration and Star drew. "I use my monster's other effect to tribute Glen Duo to summon Guardian Angel Joan (ATK 2800)." Glen Duo vanished from the field and was replaced by an angelic female with short red hair, dressed in white clothes with gold trims. "I now about Reflect Bounder's ability redirect my monster's attack points to damage my life points when it's attacked, so I'll go after Mad Dog of Darkness instead."

Guardian Angel Joan charged a blast of light in her hands and fired it at the Mad Dog, destroying Spectra's monster and sending her life points down to 1100. "Whenever Guardian Angel Joan destroys a monster," Star began, "I gain life points equal to the destroyed monster's attack points." As Star gave this explanation, her life points rose to 5100.

Spectra drew, then gave a malicious grin as she saw her card.  
"You've put up a great fight Star," she said. "But now it's time to end this and turn you into existential dragon chow."

"And just how do you plan to do that when I have a 2800 point monster and 4000 more life points than you?" Star asked.

"Simple," Spectra said evilly. "I remove Great Maju Garzett and Twin Headed Thunderdragon from play so that I can summon Black Luster Soldier, Envoy of the Beginning (ATK 3000)." Spectra removed her monsters and brought forth a man in black armor, wielding a shield and a curved sword.

Spectra directed her newest creature to attack Guardian Angel Joan. Black Luster Soldier charged into battle and slashed Joan, destroying the Guardian Angel. "And here comes the best part," Spectra said with that malicious grin again. "Now that Black Luster Soldier has destroyed a monster, he gets to attack again."

The Envoy of the Beginning slashed Star with his sword. The result of both battles left Star with only 1900 life points, less than Fiend Megacyber's attack strength. Spectra directed the gold clad monster to finish the blond off. Fiend Megacyber punched Star, eliminating the remainder of her life points.

"God Damn it," Star screamed after losing the duel. "I hate it when I lose." Once this declaration of disgust was spoken, Star felt strange and noticed that she evaporating like all the defeated ones before her. "Shit. That just makes this worse.

"Danny," Star said as she faced him. "You've beaten me before, so I know how good you are. I want you to beat this sadistic bitch and avenge me. Oh, and save me if you're not too busy."

Star completely faded away after making her plea.


	16. Chapter 16

_Those poor gringas never stood a chance, _Paulina thought as she went over how Star and Jazz were defeated. _I'm not strong enough to deal with this. I'm not even strong enough to stop Dash from having his way with me._

Paulina began to discreetly back away from the others, but stopped when she saw Danny. _If he's strong enough to be the town super hero after dealing with all the crap he's had to deal with, then maybe I have what it takes to see this through to then end._ After finding some resolve, she stopped her withdrawal.

"Let's get over with Spectra," Danny said as he readied his amulet, about to honor Star's request.

"I'd prefer if I took a little break in between defeating you and the blond," Spectra said tauntingly. "Why don't you take on Bertrand first?"

"let me take him Danny," Tucker said.

"I don't know Tuck," Danny replied. "Bertrand defeated my sister, so I'd like to take a little pay back out on him. And I'm pretty confident that I can handle him then Spectra."

"Please Danny," Tucker said with a very serious expression that let Danny know he wasn't fooling around. "Let me take him." Unbeknownst to Danny, Tucker had a bit of a thing for his sister. Seeing her get beaten by that foot stool lackey Bertrand really pissed him off and now he wanted to do a little venting.

"All right dude," Danny said as he backed off. "He's all yours."

"You're going to regret this," Bertrand said as he got into position to face Tucker. Both of them activated their amulets, drew their opening hands and started with 4000 life points.

"I'll go first," Bertrand said as he drew. "I play Armored Rat in defense mode (DEF 2000)," he said as a rat with metallic armor appeared in front of him in a defensive stance.

"My move," Tucker said as he drew. "I play Polymerization and fuse Elemental Hero Sparkman with King of the Swamp to summon Elemental Hero Thunder Giant (ATK 2400)." A man with a very muscular upper body covered in yellow armor appeared in front of Tucker. "Now I use Thunder Giant's special effect. I discard a card from my hand so I can destroy your monster."

Tucker discarded his card and Thunder Giant unleashed a powerful blast of lightning from his hands that destroyed Armored Rat. Tucker then ordered his monster to attack Bertrand directly. Elemental Hero Thunder Giant punched Bertrand and lowered his life points to 1600. Tucker played both a card and a monster face down then ended his turn.

"Not bad, but you'll have to do a lot better against me," Bertrand said as he drew. "I summon Gazelle King of Mythical Beasts (ATK 1500)," he said as he brought forth a brown beast. "Now I play Poison Fangs and boost his attack strength with Wild Nature's Release."

_That's the card he used to beat Jazz, _Tucker thought as a firey aura surrounded Gazelle rose its attack points to 2700. Bertrand directed the King of Mythical Beast to attack Thunder Giant. Gazelle leapt into battle and destroyed the Elemental Hero with a powerful claw swipe. The battle reduced Tucker's life points to 3700.

"Now Poison Fangs comes into effect," Bertrand continued. "Because I just had a beast type monster deal battle damage, you lose an additional 500 points," he explained as Tucker's life points went down to 3200. "Since Gazelle is going to be destroyed when I end my turn because I used Wild Nature's Release, I sacrifice him with Mystic Wok. Now I gain life points equal to his increased attack points."

Gazelle vanished from the field as Bertrand's life points went up to 4300. _So much for my early lead, _Tucker thought. _Still, I can't give up._

Tucker drew. "I summon Elemental Hero Avian (ATK 1000)," he said as a humanoid with white wings and green feathers on his body appeared in front of him. "I also reveal my face down monster to be Morphing Jar (ATK 800)," he said as he flipped up the monster and showed that it was a black jar with a face in the opening. "Now that I've flipped Morphing Jar, its effect activates. The both of us discard our hands and draw 5 cards."

Tucker's hand was empty, so he didn't have to discard anything. But Bertrand was forced to ditch two cards before drawing five new ones. With the two of them now having full hands, Tuckered ordered both of his monsters to attack Bertrand directly. Avian unleashed a gust of wind from his wings and Morphing Jar extended from the jar and bit Bertrand. Both attacks lowered the lackiey's life points to 2500.

Bertrand drew. "Enjoy the lead while you can," Bertrand said. "I summon King Tiger Wanghu (ATK 1700)," he said as he brought forth a tiger with long fangs that wearing steel battle armor. "Wanghu, attack Elemental Hero Avian." The King TIger leapt forward and pounced on Avian, destroying the feathered Elemental Hero and reducing Tucker's life points to 2500. Poison Fangs further damaged him to 2000 life points.

Tucker drew. "I play Dark Factory of Mass Production," he said. "This spell let's me add two normal monsters in my graveyard to my hand: like Sparkman and Avian. Next, I use a 2nd copy of Polymerization to fuse them along with Elemental Hero Bubbleman to call out Elemental Hero Tempest (ATK 2800)." A man with Avian's wings, a blaster on his right hand and wearing Sparkman's costume appeared in front of Tucker. "Tempest, destroy King Tiger Wanghu."

Tempest fired a stream of energy from his blaster that destroyed Wangu. With no more obstructions, Tucker had Morphing Jar attack Bertrand directly. Both battles left him with 600. Bertrand drew as his turn began.

"You just made a mistake that's going to cost you the duel," Bertrand said. "This will probably look familiar to you. I use Polymerization to combine Des Kangaroo and Big Koala into Master of Oz. Now it's time to end this by destroying Morphing Jar."

"Not so fast," Tucker said. "I use Tempest's special effect. I sacrifice Morphing Jar so that Tempest can become indestructible in battle." Morphing Jar vanished from the field just as Master of Oz brought back its fist.

Bertrand let out a frustrated growl as he was forced to change the target of his attack to Elemental Hero Tempest. His monster's fist made contact with Tempest, but Tempest wasn't destroyed. Instead, Tempest was pushed backward as Tucker's life points, combined with the damage from Poison Fangs, were reduced to a mere 100.

"How do you plan to defeat me now," Bertrand taunted as Tucker drew.

"Simple. I'll start with a little urban renewal by playing Sky Scraper," Tucker said as he played the field spell and caused many sky scrapers to spring up from the ground. "Now whenever one of my Elemental Heroes attacks a stronger monster, it gains an additional 1000 points."

"That's still not enough to topple Master of Oz," Bertrand pointed out.

"Then it's a good thing I have this: Heated Heart," Tucker said as activated the card he played face down on his first move. "Heated Heart raises Tempest's attack points by 500," he explained as his monster's attack strength became 3300. "And that's not all. I also summon Elemental Hero Burstinitrix. Now Tempest, attack Master of Oz."

Tempest's attack points increased to 4300 due to Sky Scraper. He fired his blaster and destroyed Master of Oz. Tucker followed through by attacking directly with Burstinitrix and sending Bertrand's life points to 0.

"You four eyed bastard," Bertrand screamed as he began vanishing. "I can't believe I was beaten by a hopeless nerd like you. If I ever get out of this, I am gonna........"

Bertrand was interrupted as his diminutive form finished disappearing.


	17. Chapter 17

"Well that was entertaining," Spectra said. "Are you ready to be defeated by me Danny?" she said as she readied her amulet.

"No, but I am ready to see if you can back up your arrogance," he replied as he got into position to duel Spectra and readied his own amulet.

"I've been waiting for this for a very long time," Spectra said as the two of them drew their opening hands and began with 4000 life points. "Since I'm going to win anyway, why don't you go first?"

"All right," Danny said as he drew. "I play one card face down and one monster face down."

"Those defenses won't help you at all," Spectra said as she drew. "I summon Exarion Universe (ATK 1800)," she said as she brought forth a black centaur wielding a shield and a staff. "Now I activate its effect: I decrease its attack points by 400 and in exchange, it can deal battle damage to your defensive monsters."

Exarion Universe's attack strength lowered to 1400. It charged forward and swung its staff at Danny's monster, revealing it to be Destiny Hero Disk Commander (DEF 300), a man in a blue costume with disks on his wrists and two big ones on his back. Disk Commander was destroyed and Danny's life points decreased to 2900.

"I activate my trap, Damage Condenser," he said as he revealed his card. "I send a card from my hand to the graveyard and summon a monster from my deck with less attack points than the amount of life points I just lost. And I summon Destiny Hero Captain Tenacious."

"How is that going to help you?" Spectra asked then ended her turn.

"I'm glad you asked," Danny replied as he drew. "Sine I lost Destiny Hero last turn, Captain Tenacious's effect let's me bring it back," Danny explained as Disk Commander reappeared in front of him. "And now Disk Commander's effect activates. Because he was just special summoned from the graveyard, I get to draw 2 cards." Danny drew his cards. "Now I sacrifice Disk Commander to summon Destiny Hero Dasher."

Disk Commander vanished from the field and was replaced by the much more powerful Dasher, who Danny directed to attack Exarion Universe. Dasher sped forward and destroyed the centaur creature with a high speed swipe of its arm. Danny followed through by having Captain Tenacious attack Spectra directly. The result of both battles reduced her life points to 2900, tying her with Danny.

"After Dasher attacks, he goes into defense mode (DEF 1000)," Danny explained as Dasher took a defensive position in front of Danny. Spectra drew as her turn began.

"I summon Reflect Bounder," she said. "Reflect Bounder, attack Captain Tenacious," she ordered. Reflect Bounder fired a spacial distortion blast from one of its mirrors that destroyed Captain Tenacious and lowered Danny's life points to 2000.

Danny drew. _Now what should I do, _he pondered. _I could destroy Reflect Bounder with Dasher, but Star mentioned a special effect in her duel with Spectra. Something about if I attack Reflect Bounder, my monster's attack points will be redirected to me as damage. _Danny did some quick math to weigh the consequences of his next move. _If I attack with Dasher, I'll lose the duel. So I'll do something else instead._

"I switch Dasher back to attack mode and summon Destiny Hero Fear Monger (ATK 1000)," Danny said as Dasher abandoned his defensive stance and a new creature appeared before him. Destiny Hero Fear Monger was a man in a dark yellow suit of armor that covered his whole body. He had jet wings on his back and a blaster for a right arm. "Now I play Shield and Sword."

Danny activated his spell and exchanged the attack points of every monster on the field with their defense points. Fear Monger had identical attack and defense values, so nothing changed there. Both Dasher and Reflect Bounder had 1000 defense points, so now they had 1000 attack points.

With Danny's spell having taken effect, he had Fear Monger attack Reflect Bounder. Fear Monger fired a sphere of black energy from his blaster at his target. The sphere made contact with Reflect Bounder and the mechanical creature bounced the blast back off one of its mirrors before being destroyed. Fear Monger was hit with his blast and was destroyed as well. Reflect Bounder's effect activated and Danny's life points were decreased to 1000. Danny then had Dasher attack Spectra directly. The swift Destiny Hero charged the malicious spirit and struck her, sending her life points down to 1900. Dasher changed modes again and Danny played a card face down before ending his turn.

Spectra drew. "This will probably look very familiar to you," she said with an evil grin. "I remove Exarion Universe and Reflect Bounder from play so I can summon Black Luster Soldier, Envoy of the Beginning."

"Oh no," Sam said as Spectra's monster hit the field. "That's the creature she used to beat Star. I hope you have a plan Danny."

Spectra directed her monster to attack. "I play my trap, D-shield," Danny said. His revealed card created a force shield around Dasher. Black Luster Soldier struck the shield and was repelled. "With D-shield equipped, Dasher is indestructible in battle as long as he's in defense mode."

"Impressive, but it won't help you in the long run," Spectra said. "It didn't come up in my last duel, but Black Luster Soldier has another effect. On my next turn, I can forgo attacking and my monster will remove yours from play."

"Then I'll just have to do something to prevent that," Danny said as he drew. "Since Fear Monger was destroyed last turn, I can bring back one of my other Destiny Heroes this turn. I choose Disk Commander and you know what that means." Destiny Hero Disk Commander once again appeared on Danny's field, allowing him to draw 2 cards. "Next, I summon Destiny Hero Diamond Dude and sacrifice all three of my monsters to summon Destiny Hero Plasma (ATK 1900)."

Danny's monsters dissolved and formed a swirling vortex of blood. From the vortex emerged a demonic humanoid covered in red scales with a large dragon's head for a right arm and a pair of large bat-like wings.

"Is that supposed to scare me?" Spectra asked tauntingly. "That monster has less attack points than mine."

"Then it's a good thing I'm not going to attack," Danny said. "Plasma is going to use his effect to absorb your monster."

"Absorb?" Spectra asked bewilderedly.

"Allow me to show you," Danny said as Plasma spread out his wings and created a vacuum that pulled Black Luster Soldier towards him. Spectra's monster went inside Plasma and disappeared. "Now that Black Luster Soldier has been absorbed, Plasma gains half his attack points," Danny explained as Plasma's attack strength rose to 3400. "It's time to end this. Plasma, attack Spectra."

Plasma unleashed a barrage of tiny red energy blasts that eliminated the remainder of Spectra's life points.

"Shit," Spectra said as she began to evaporate. "So much for me being the one to finally defeat the ghost boy once and for all. At least I can take some comfort in the fact that you have no chance against Aragon when you face him. I'll be seeing you soon," she said as she finished disappearing.


	18. Chapter 18

With Spectra defeated, the group resumed their travel. It wasn't long before they came across their next obstacle. This time it was Aragon's own sister, Dora.

"Aw crap," Sam said. "Let me guess: he's got you back to being under his control again."

"Correct," Dora responded as she readied her amulet. "Now which one of you blasphemous heathens wants to be the first to fall to me?"

"I'll go," Sam said as she prepared her amulet in response. "I saved you from his control once, I can do it again."

"We'll see about that human," Dora replied. Both of them drew their opening hands and began with 4000 life points. "I'll go first," she said as she drew. "I play a monster face down."

"My turn," Sam said as she drew. "I play the spell Dark World Dealings. Now each of us discards a card, the draws one." Both of them did that. "The card I discarded was Beige, Vanguard of Darkworld (ATK 1600). Since he was discarded, I get to summon him now," she said as a demonic man wielding a spear appeared in front of her. "I also summon Zure, Knight of Darkworld. Zure, attack Dora's monster."

Zure charged into battle and revealed Dora's monster to be a bone white dragon with a red under belly before destroying it with a mighty sword swipe. "Now that you've destroyed my Masked Dragon," Dora began, "I am allowed to summon a dragon monster with less than 1500 attack points to take its place. And I select another Masked Dragon in defense mode (DEF 1100)."

"That won't be there for long," Sam said as she had Beige attack. The Vanguard of Darkworld lunged his spear into dragon, vanquishing it.

"I summon Red Eyes Black Chick (ATK 800)," Dora said as she used her 2nd Masked Dragon's effect to play a small black dragon with burning red eyes. Sam ended her turn and Dora drew. "I now use my monster's effect: by sacrificing it I can special summon Red Eyes Black Dragon (ATK 2400) from my hand."

Red Eyes Black Chick vanished from the field and was replaced by a much larger dragon that looked like an adult version of the previous creature.

"I also summon Luster Dragon (ATK 1900)," Dora said as she brought forth a medium sized blue dragon that sparkled over various points on its body. "Red Eyes, attack Zure," Dora ordered. Red Eyes Black Dragon fired a flaming sphere that destroyed the Knight of Darkworld. Dora followed through by having Luster Dragon attack Beige. The glistening dragon unleashed a stream of emerald fire that incinerated Beige into nothingness. Both battles had reduced Sam's life points to 3100.

Sam drew as her turn began. "I play a monster in defense mode and end my turn."

"That's not all that will be ending," Dora said as she drew. "Red Eyes, destroy her creature." The black dragon fired a flaming sphere at Sam's monster, revealing it to be a large oil lamp on four stands. The fire ball made contact, but did no damage to Sam's creature.

"You just activated my monster's effect," Sam said with a grin. "When Ancient Lamp is attacked while face down, I get to redirect the attack to another one of my opponent's monsters."

Red Eyes's fire ball bounced off of Ancient Lamp and went towards Luster Dragon. The sparkling dragon was destroyed by its comrade's attack and Dora's life points went down to 3500.

"My move," Sam said as she drew. "I now use Ancient Lamp's second effect: when it's face up, I can special summon La Jinn, Mystic Genie of the Lamp (ATK 1800) from my hand," Sam explained as she brought forth a muscular green man with a vapor trail for a lower half. "And since that was a special summon, I can use my turn's normal summon to trade both of these monsters for Despair from the Dark (ATK 2800)."

Mystic Lamp and La Ginn disappeared from the field and were replaced by a demonic figure with a ghostly red body, evil looking horns and clawed hands. "Despair from the Dark, destroy Red Eyes Black Dragon," Sam ordered. Despair destroyed Red Eyes with its claws and lowered Dora's life points to 3100, tying her with Sam.

Dora drew. "I summon The Dragon Dwelling in the Cave in defense mode (DEF 2000)," she said as a wingless green dragon in a defensive stance appeared in front of her. She ended her turn and Sam drew.

"I summon Broww, Huntsman of Dark World (ATK 1400)," Sam said as she brought forth a demonic man in steel wielding a bow. "Despair from the Dark, destroy Dora's dragon," she ordered. Despair slashed The Dragon Dwelling in the Cave, destroying the creature. Sam followed through by directing Broww to attack Dora directly. The Huntsman of Dark World fired an arrow from his bow that hit Dora lowered her life points to 1700.

Dora drew as her turn began. "The time of your end is nigh," she declared. "I play Premature Burial to bring back Red Eyes Black Dragon for 800 life points," she said as Red Eyes returned to the field and Dora's life points went down to 900. "Now I sacrifice Red Eyes to summon its evolved form: the Red Eyes Darkness Dragon (ATK 2400)."

Red Eyes changed into a nastier version of itself. Its wings took a curvier shape and its scales became gray instead. "What's so special about that dragon?" Sam asked. "It has the same attack points as the last one."

"That's where its special effect comes into play," Dora said with a grin. "For each dragon type monster in my graveyard, Red Eyes Darkness Dragon gains 300 attack points. And with 6 dragons in my grave, it gets an extra 1800 attack points," Dora explained as Darkness Dragon's attack strength rose to 4200. "Darkness Dragon, attack Brow," Dora directed.

Red Eyes Darkness Dragon unleashed a stream of black fire that incinerated Broww. The fiery attack left Sam with only 300 life points. "This is not good," Tucker said as he watched the duel.

"Relax," Danny said. "Sam's got it covered." _At least I hope she does, _he added in his head.

Sam drew. "I convert Despair from the Dark into defense mode (DEF 3000) and play another monster face down."

"You're only delaying the inevitable," Dora said as she drew. "I summon Lord of Dragons (ATK 1200)," she said. Her new creature was a man wearing a red and bone white outfit with a red cape and a helmet that looked like a dragon's head. "And to further empower Darkness Dragon, my new monster has a special effect. Lord of Dragons protects all dragons from spells, traps and monster effects. Now Darkness Dragon, attack Despair from the dark."

Red Eyes Darkness Dragon destroyed Despair with a stream of dark flames. Dora followed through by having Lord of Dragons attack Sam's face down monster. Lord of Dragons formed a green ball of energy in his hand and launched it at the defensive creature. The green sphere revealed Sam's monster to be Gren, Tactician of Dark World (DEF 500), a gray humanoid demon with a large head and a green cape holding a book. Gren was destroyed by the energy sphere.

_I better get something good, _Sam thought as she drew. _I think I can with these cards, _Sam thought as she looked at her hand.

"I play a monster face down as well as the spell Creature Swap," Sam said. "Creature Swap let's us switch one monster each."

"If you're trying to take my Darkness Dragon, you can't," Dora said. "Lord of Dragons protects it from your spell's effect."

"That's fine, because I'm taking Lord of Dragons instead," Sam said as her face down monster and Lord of Dragons exchanged owners. "Now I'll have your former monster attack mine." Lord of Dragons fired another energy sphere that revealed Sam's card to be Morphing Jar before it was destroyed. "Morphing Jar's effect activates, so we discard our hands and draw 5 new cards."

"Hoping to draw something useful?" Dora asked.

"No," Sam replied. "The two cards I needed were already in my hand. Now that they've been discarded, I can use them."

"What are you babbling about?"

"Allow me to show you. The first card I discarded was Kahkki, Guerilla of Dark World. With it discarded, I can destroy one monster on the field. So I destroy Lord of Dragons."

"How is that going to help you?" Dora asked as the creature was destroyed.

"Because with Lord of Dragons gone," Sam began, "your Darkness Dragon is no longer protected from monster effects. Which is great, because the other card I discarded was Reign-Beuax, Overlord of Dark Lord (ATK 2500). Since it was discarded by an effect controlled by my opponent, he gets special summoned."

"But Morphing Jar was your monster," Dora protested as Sam's new creature appeared on the field. Reing-Beuax was a large demonic man with black skin and armor wielding a trident.

"But its effect activated while on your side of the field, technically make it yours," Sam explained. "And now that he's on the field, I get to destroy all your monsters or all your spells and traps. I select monsters." Reign-Beuax conjured a tidal wave of dark energy that cascaded against Darkness Dragon, destroying it. "Reing-Beuax, attack Dora directly," Sam ordered. The Overlord of Dark World unleashed several streams of dark energy from his trident that eliminated the remainder of Dora's life points.

"You will pay for that human," Dora said as she began to evaporate. "I am confident that you will face my brother in the near future and when that happens, he will destroy you," she finished as she completely vanished.


	19. Chapter 19

With Dora defeated, the group continued on their way. It wasn't long until they came across a sight Danny never wanted to see again: Vlad Plasmius.

"What the hell?" Danny cried out. "Aren't you supposed to be in space?"

"I was," Vlad said. "But a randomly generated ghost portal opened near me in space. Spectra found me and recruited me to Aragon's cause."

"Of course she did," Danny sighed in frustration as he readied his amulet.

"Not yet Daniel. I want to face one of your friends first."

"Why?"

"What better way to make you suffer than watching me defeat your friends before you experience the same fate?"

"Oh that's it," Tucker said angrily as he stepped forward and prepped his amulet. "It's go time you smug bastard."

"Back off Tucker," Danny said. "Let me handle him."

"Come now Daniel," Vlad said. "If your friend wishes to face me, then why not let him?"

"Yeah," Tucker said. "You've had a few skirmishes with this guy before, now let me have a shot at him."

"Fine," Danny agreed begrudgingly and stepped back. _I hope I don't regret this._

Vlad deployed his amulet's arms. The two of them got into position, drew their opening hands and began with 4000 life points each. "I'll go first," Vlad said as he drew. "I play one card face down and one monster face down."

Tucker drew as his turn began. "I summon Elemental Hero Stratos (ATK 1800)," he said as he brought forth a man in a blue costume with two mechanical wings containing a mechanical fan each. "When Stratos is summoned, I get to add a 4 star elemental hero from my deck to my hand. And I pick another Stratos." Tucker added the second Stratos to his hand. "Now Stratos, attack Vlad's monster."

Elemental Hero Stratos unleashed a powerful gust of wind from the fans on his wings. The attack revealed Vlad's monster to be a mechanical sphere with two arms. "I activate my trap, Macrocosmos," Vlad said. "With this trap on the field, all cards that should go to the graveyard are removed from play instead."

Strato's attack went through unhindered and destroyed Vlad's monster. Tucker ended his turn and Vlad's monster came back to the field in attack mode (ATK 800). "What just happened?" Tucker asked.

"My monster's effect, that's what happened," Vlad began. "At the end of a turn where D.D. Scout Plane is removed from play, it returns to me in attack mode. Now if you'll excuse me, I believe it's my turn," Vlad said then drew. "I summon Card Trooper and use its effect." Vlad removed the top 3 cards on his deck from play which boosted his newest creature's attack strength to 1900. "Card Trooper, destroy Stratos," he ordered.

Card Trooper fired blasts of yellow energy from the blasters on his arms that destroyed Stratos. Vlad followed through by having D.D. Scout Plane attack Tucker directly. The plane fired a stream of bullets that hit Tucker. Both battles had reduced Tucker's life points to 3100.

"Not bad, but I think I can do better," Tucker said as he drew. "I summon my second Stratos and use its effect to add Sparkman to my hand. Now I use Polymerization to fuse Clayman and Sparkman into Elemental Hero Thunder Giant."

"Impressive," Vlad said as he gazed at Tucker's monsters.

"I'm just getting started," Tucker said. "I use Thunder Giant's effect: I discard a card from my hand to destroy D.D. Scout Plane." Thunder Giant fired a blast of lightning from his hands that destroyed D.D. Scout Plane. "Thunder Giant, destroy Card Trooper." Thunder Giant brought back its fist and obliterated Card Trooper with a mighty blow. With it destroyed, its second effect activated and let Vlad draw a card. Tucker wasn't concerned too much by this as he ordered Stratos to attack Vlad directly. Stratos unleashed a powerful gust like the one before him. The result of Tucker's assaults left Vlad with merely 200 life points left.

"Do you want to save time and just surrender now?" Tucker taunted as he played a card face down and ended his turn, causing D.D. Scout Plane came back to Vlad.

"Not a chance in hell," Vlad said as he drew. "I activate Lightning Vortex. I discard a card from my hand and now destroy both your monsters." A swirling vortex appeared on Vlad's side of the field that shoot several bolts of lightning that destroyed Thunder Giant and Stratos.

_Bloody hell, _Tucker thought as he looked at his face down card. _Because my monsters were removed from play, I can't use my Elemental Mirage trap to bring them back. But with my life points at 3100, I can probably with stand whatever Vlad has in mind for me._

"Now I sacrifice D.D. Scout Plane to summon Golden Homunculus (ATK 1500)," Vlad said. D.D. Scout Plane disappeared and in its place appeared a giant humanoid headless statue made of gold. "And now for the best part: Golden Homunculus's effect gives it an additional 300 points for every one of my cards removed from play. With 7 cards, its attack strength rises to 3600."

"Oh crap," Danny said as he took stock of the situation. Vlad ordered Golden Homunculus to attack. The empowered creature fired a barrage of golden shards that impacted Tucker and sent his life points to zero.

"Damn," Tucker said he began vanishing. "I should be more pissed about this, but I'm not . That's because I know that you're about to follow me to........ wherever I'm about to go to. See you soon, you pompous son of a.............." Tucker was unable to finish his tirade as he disappeared.


	20. Chapter 20

"You're going to pay for that Vlad," Danny said as he got ready to face Vlad.

"Sounds good," Vlad said with an evil grin.

"Not so fast Danny," Paulina spoke up. "I haven't done anything since that practice duel with your sister. I want to face this bandejo."

"What's a bandejo?" Danny asked.

"He is," Paulina said while pointing to Vlad. "He almost got the planet trashed by a giant space rock in an attempt to take it over. And as someone who lives on the planet, I think that gives me more than enough reason to have a crack at him."

Danny could tell from the look in Paulina's eyes that she was very serious about wanting to face Vlad. Since refusing her request probably wouldn't get him anywhere, he decided to grant her request. "He's all yours Paulina," Danny said as he backed away.

"Impressive," Vlad said as he and Paulina got into position. "Your courage would be impressive if it wasn't so suicidally idiotic."

"I'm going to take those words and shove them up your smug ass hole," Paulina retorted. She and Vlad readied their amulets, drew their opening hands and began with 4000 life points each.

"I'll go first," Vlad said as he drew. "I play two continuos spell cards: Dimensional Fissure and Ectoplasmer. Now I summon D.D. Survivor (ATK 1800)," he said and brought forth a man in gray armor who was concealed by a tattered, sand colored robe. "I end my turn so the fun can begin."

"What do you mean?" Paulina asked.

"Here's how it goes," Vlad began. "Since my turn ended, Ectoplasmer activates and makes me sacrifice one of my monsters so that you take half its attack strength as damage." D.D. Survivor glowed bright blow and condensed into a small ball. The ball fired as a blast at Paulina that lowered her life points to 3100. "Dimensional Fissure sends all monsters that should go to the graveyard out of play. And at the end of a turn when D.D. Survivor is sent from the field to out of play, he returns to me."

"Just frickin great," Paulina moaned. "I lose almost 1000 life points and you lose nothing."

"Exactly as planned," Vlad said.

"Well let's see if I can come from behind," Paulina said as she drew. "I summon Cure Mermaid in defense mode (DEF 800)," she said as a mermaid with a red tail, a pink top and blond hair appeared before her in a defensive position. "I also play one card face down and end my turn."

"Now it's time for your monster to sacrificed through Ectoplasmer's effect," Vlad said as Cure Mermaid began glowing bright blue.

"But I don't want to sacrifice my monster," Paulina whined.

"Its not up to you," Vlad said as Cure Mermaid's condensed energy shot itself at him. Since Paulina's card had 1500 attack points, Vlad's life points went down to 3250.

_Fantastic, _Sam thought sarcastically. _Vlad forced Paulina to give up her monster so now she's defenseless. I knew it was a bad idea to bring her along._

Vlad drew as his turn began. "I summon D.D. Warrior Lady," he said as he brought forth a blond woman in black armor wielding a sword. "Now its time to end this."

"Guess again. I activate my trap, Gravity Bind," Paulina said as she revealed her face down card. "Gravity Bind prevents all monsters with 4 or more stars from attacking."

"Sugar Cookies," Vlad said in disappointment. "That applies to both my monsters. At least I can still do this," he said as he ended his turn and sacrificed D.D. Survivor to decrease Paulina's life points to 2200. Once again, Survivor returned to Vlad after being sacrificed.

Paulina drew. "I play A Legendary Ocean," she said as she played her field spell and covered the field in water with a ruin off to their side. "Now I summon Gagagigo, who is now a 3 star monster and 200 points stronger thanks to Legendary Ocean. Gagagigo, attack D.D. Survivor."

Paulina's fish man creature charged into battle and struck the Survivor with a claw swipe, sending Vlad's life points to 3000. Paulina ended her turn, causing Ectoplasmer to sacrifice Gagagigo and further reduce Vlad's life points to 2075. Vlad drew as his turn began.

"I summon D.D. scout Plane," he said. "Since this card only has 2 stars, it's unaffected by Gravity Bind." Vlad had the Scout Plane attack Paulina directly, lowering her life points to 1400. Vlad followed through by once again sacrificing D.D. Survivor with Ectoplasmer. Paulina was left with only 500 life points and Survivor returned to Vlad.

_Not good, _Danny thought as he assessed Paulina's situation. _If she doesn't win this turn, all Vlad has to do is sacrifice D.D. Survivor again to win the duel. I hope Paulina has a plan._

Paulina drew and looked at her new card. _This isn't going to help me, _she thought, then proved herself wrong by coming up with a way to beat Vlad. "I summon Mother Grizzly (ATK 1400, increased to 1600)," Paulina said as she brought forth a large grizzly bear with light blue fur. "Mother Grizzly, attack D.D. Survivor," she ordered.

"I think the stress has finally gotten to you," Vlad said as Mother Grizzly ran into battle and was destroyed by a might punch from D.D. Survivor, further reducing Paulina's life points to 300.

"Guess again, bastard," Paulina said. "When Mother Grizzly is destroyed, I get to summon a Water attribute with less than 1500 attack points from my deck. And I choose Amphibious Bugroth MK-3 (ATK 1500, increased to 1700)." A red submersible with two oxygen tanks appeared in front of Paulina. "When A Legendary Ocean is on the field, Bugroth can attack you directly."

"Oh Snickerdoodle," Vlad said as Bugroth submerged into the water and fired two torpedoes that bypassed his monsters and hit him and sent his life points to 375.

_Amazing, _Sam thought to herself. _Paulina is going to win this. Even more surprising, I'm impressed by something she's done._

"I end my turn," Paulina said with a grin as her creature was tributed by Ectoplasmer. Bugroth turned into blue energy and collided with Vlad, depleting the middle aged half ghost's life points.

"I can't believe I just got defeated by some walking hispanic Barbie doll," Vlad said as he began disappearing. "But I know that this is as far as you'll go. I'm the last soul collector. Only Aragon is left, and you don't a chance against him," he said as he finished vanishing.


	21. Chapter 21

Once Vlad had finished exiting the area, a mass of black flame appeared in front of Danny, Sam and Paulina. The flame subsided, and Aragon stood in front of them. "Impressive," he said to the group. "Now that you've defeated my soul collectors, it's time for you to fall before me."

"We'll see about that," Danny said as he readied his amulet.

"Not so fast," Aragon said. "Why don't I face your two female companions simultaneously instead?"

"No," Danny answered.

"Oh come on Danny," Sam said. "If this jackass is stupid enough to think he can beat me and Paulina two on one just because we're both girls, then give us a chance to prove him wrong."

"Wait, you actually want to work with Paulina on something?" Danny asked with an eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"There are some people I hate more than her, and he's one of them," Sam explained. "What do you say?"

"You interested Paulina?" Danny asked the latina.

"Hell yeah," she said with a determined expression. She didn't know much about Aragon, but she could tell that this guy was sexist asshole like Dash. That made her want to teach him a lesson.

"Go ahead," Danny said. Sam and Paulina stood across from Aragon. Each of them readied their amulets and drew their opening hands. Aragon started with 8000 life points while Sam and Paulina would share 8000.

"I'll go first," Aragon said as he drew. "I summon Hunter Dragon (ATK 1700)," he said as he brought forth a black dragon with many claws.

"My turn," Paulina said as she drew. I summon Mother Grizzly in defense mode (DEF 1200)," she said as her monster appeared in a defensive stance.

"Here I go," Sam said as she drew, sounding slightly nervous due to the severity of the situation. "I summon La Ginn, Mystic Genie of the Lamp (ATK 1800) and have him attack Hunter Dragon." La Ginn released a stream of fire from his mouth that incinerated Aragon's monster and lowered his life points to 7900. He drew as his turn began.

"I summon Cyberdark Horn (ATK 800)," he said as he brought forth a serpentine creature made out of brown metal with many spikes over its body and 4 big ones on its head.

"That's a machine monster," Sam said. "I thought you hated technology."

"I do," Aragon said. "But I've made certain exceptions. And here's why. When Cyberdark Horn is normal summoned, I get to equip a level 3 or lower dragon from my graveyard to it: such as Hunter Dragon." A hole appeared in front of Aragon and Hunter Dragon came out of it. Cyberdark Horn brought his spikes over Hunter Dragon and integrated the dragon into itself.

"Now Cyberdark Horn gains Hunter Dragon's attack strength," Aragon explained as Cyberdark Horn's attack points rose to 2500. "Cyberdark Horn, destroy Mother Grizzly," he ordered. Cyberdark Horn brought the 4 big spikes on its head together and fired a blast of brown energy that destroyed Mother Grizzly. "And my monster has another effect: it inflicts battle damage to defensive monsters." Because of this, Sam and Paulina's life points reduced to 6500.

"Well my monster has an effect too," Paulina said. "Since it's been destroyed, I can replace it with another one from my deck: like Cure Mermaid," Paulina said as her new monster took to the field in attack mode. Aragon ended his turn and Paulina drew as her's began.

"Now Cure Mermaid's effect activates," she said. "At the beginning of my turn, Cure Mermaid increases my life points by 800," she explained as her and Sam's life points went up to 7300. "I play Amphibious Bugroth MK-3 in defense mode (DEF 1300) and end my turn," she said as her new monster appeared in a defensive stance.

_That's a good move, _Sam thought. _Cure Mermaid only has 800 defense points, so leaving it in attack mode will serve as a better detour to our life points. Still, we need to do something about his monster._

Sam drew and came up with a way to get rid of Cyberdark Horn. "I play Dark World Dealings," She said. "Now each of us discards a card, then draws one" They all did just that. "Since the card I discarded was Beige, Vanguard of Dark World, I get to special summon him to the field. Now I sacrifice both Beige and La Ginn to summon Reign-beux, Overlord of Dark World," Sam said as she tributed her two monsters to summon the one she used to win her last duel. "Reign-beux, attack Cyberdark Horn," she ordered.

The Overlord of Dark World fired several streams of dark energy at Aragon's monster, which countered with a blast of its own. The attacks met and created a big explosion. When the dust settled, Reign-beux was destroyed and Cyberdark Horn lost Hunter Dragon. "Did I miss something?" Paulina asked. "Why is Cyberdark Horn still around?"

"Because the equipped monster also served as a shield," Aragon said. "Hunter Dragon took the blow to save Cyberdark Horn. Now, I believe it's my turn," he said as he drew. "I sacrifice Cyberdark Horn to summon Armed Dragon Level 5 (ATK 2400)."

Cyberdark Horn vanished from the field and was replaced by a red and black dragon with metal claws and spikes. "Armed Dragon, destroy Cure Mermaid," Aragon ordered. Armed Dragon roared and sent out a red shock wave that annihilated Cure Mermaid and reduced Paulina and Sam's life points to 6400. "I end my turn. And since Armed Dragon destroyed a monster this turn, it evolves into its level 7 form (ATK 2800."

Armed Dragon began was covered in light and was changed into a bigger and nastier version of itself. Paulina drew as her turn began. "That overgrown gecko doesn't scare me," she boasted. "And here's why. I play A Legendary Ocean. Now I sacrifice Amphibious Bugroth to summon my most powerful monster: Levia Dragon Daedelus (ATK 2600, increased to 2800)."

Paulina's red submersible vanished from the field and was replaced by a massive, blue scaled sea serpent. "I suppose you're going to attack and destroy both our creatures," Aragon guessed.

"Not even close," Paulina answered. "I use Daedelus's effect. I send A Legendary Ocean to the graveyard and every other card on the field is destroyed." Daedelus created a powerful sea storm that destroyed Armed Dragon Level 7 and used up the water from A Legendary Ocean, sending his attack strength down to its original 2600. "Daedelus, attack this cabron directly," she ordered. The Levia Dragon summoned a gigantic tidal wave that collided with Aragon and brought his life points down to 5300.

"That was a great move Paulina," Sam said in astonished praise.

"I know," the latina said with a grin.

"Now let's see if I can keep the ball rolling," Sam said as she drew. "I summon Zure, Knight of Dark World and have him attack you directly." Zure rushed into battle and struck Aragon with his sword, further depleting the dragonic prince's life points to 3500.

"Enjoy the nigh 3000 point lead while you can, because it won't last for long," Aragon said as he drew. "I summon Cyberdark Keel (ATK 800)," he said as he brought forth a metallic black eel. "And like my last Cyberdark creature, I equip Hunter Dragon to it." Hunter Dragon emerged from a hole in the ground and Cyberdark Keel attached the dragon to its underbelly, raising its attack strength to 2500. "Now I further empower my technological terror by equipping it with Malevolent Nuzzler."

A pale green aura appeared around Cyberdark Keel and increased its attack points to 3200. "Obliterate the Knight of Dark World," Aragon ordered. Cyberdark Keel unleashed a black energy blast from his mouth that hit Zure, destroying him and lowering Sam and Paulina's life points to 5000. "Because Keel just destroyed a monster, you now take an additional 300 points of damage due to its effect," Aragon explained as his opponent's score decreased to 4700.

_God damn it, _Paulina thought. _Me and the goth girl are getting our asses kicked. We need to turn things around fast._


	22. Chapter 22

Paulina drew as her turn began. _Crap, _she thought as she looked at her hand. _I'll have to go on the defensive again. _

"I summon Gagagigo in defense mode (DEF 1000)," she said. "I also switch Daedelus to defense mode (DEF 1500)," she continued as the sea serpent took a defensive stance. She ended her turn and Sam drew.

"I play one monster face down and end my turn," Sam said. Aragon drew.

"I summon Cyberdark Edge (ATK 800)," he said as he brought forth a green, mechanical insect with blades along its wings. "Like the other Cyberdark creatures, Edge equips itself with a dragon from my graveyard."

"But the only dragon with less than 3 stars you've played is Hunter Dragon," Sam pointed out. "And that's not in the graveyard now."

"Ah, but I sent another one there when you played Dark World Dealings," Aragon retorted. A purple humanoid creature with wings, a spike where its head should be and two heads where its hands should be appeared on the field and attached to Cyberdark Edge. Since the creature (Twin-headed Behemoth) had 1500 attack points, Edge's new attack strength was 2300.

Aragon ordered Cyberdark Keel to attack Daedelus. The serpentine machine fired a stream of black energy that obliterated the Levia Dragon. Its effect activated and reduced Sam and Paulina's life points to 4400.

"Now I demonstrate my new creature's effect," Aragon said. "Cyberdark Edge can attack you directly. However, the damage inflicted is only half as strong as a normal attack." Cyberdark Edge flapped its wings and sent several sickle shaped gusts of wind at Sam and Paulina, decreasing their life points to 3250. "I play one card face down and end my turn," he said. Paulina drew.

"Finally," she said in glee as she drew something capable of having her go on the offensive. "I sacrifice Gagagigo to summon Mobius the Frost Monarch (ATK 2400)," she said as her fish man vanished from the field and was replaced by a man in white armor and a cape. "When Mobius hits the field, I get to destroy two spell or trap cards on the field: like Hunter Dragon and your face down," Paulina explained as Mobious unleashed a blizzard that destroyed the aforementioned cards and weakened Cyberdark Keel to 1500 attack points.

The latina followed through by ordering Mobius to attack Cyberdark Edge. The Frost Monarch conjured an icesicle in one of his hands and threw it like a javelin. The frozen projectile hit Twin Headed Behemoth, destroying it. Aragon's life points went down to 3400 and Cyberdark Edge reverted to its original attack strength of 800.

"Let's see if I can keep the ball rolling," Sam said as she drew. "I summon Brron, Mad King of Dark World and have him attack Cyberdark Edge." The Mad King obliterated the mechanical insect with a punch that lowered Aragon's life points to 2400. "Since Bron just inflicted battle damage to you, I use his effect to discard a card from my hand," she said as she did just that. "The card I choose was Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark Lord (ATK 2300) and thank to his effect, I can summon him to the field," Sam explained as a black and brown demon wielding an ax appeared in front of her.

"And the battle phase is still on. Goldd, attack Cyberdark Keel," Sam ordered. The Wu-Lord charged into battle and destroyed his target with a mighty swing of his ax, further reducing Aragon's life points to 1600.

"I have not been defeated yet," Aragon said angrily as he drew. "I play Graceful Charity, which allows me to draw 3 cards then discard 2." He drew and discarded his cards. "I now play Dragon's Mirror. This spell allows me to remove dragons from my graveyard so I can fuse them. I select 5." The transparent images of 5 dragons appeared in front of Aragon. Sam and Paulina recognized them as the Level 3 and 5 forms of Armed Dragon, Hunter Dragon, Twin Headed Behemoth and Luster Dragon (which they surmised Aragon put there when he played Graceful Charity).

The transparent images came together and created a bright light. When the light faded, a new creature stood before Aragon. It was a towering dragon with a yellow body and wings, along with five heads: one that looked like it belonged on a sea serpent, one that was aflame, one that yellow with spikes on top, one that was black and one that was steel colored.

"What the hell is that?" Paulina asked in shrieking terror.

"That is my Five Headed Dragon (ATK 5000)," Aragon said. "And now it's time for you to witness its power as I destroy Zure." Five Headed Dragon fired a stream of attacks from each of its mouths that converged on the Knight of Dark World, annihilating the creature and leaving Sam and Paulina with a mere 50 life points. Aragon ended his turn, his victory a foregone conclusion in his mind.

_Fan-freakin-tastic, _Paulina thought as she drew. She played a monster face down, converted Mobius to defense mode (DEF 1000) and ended her turn very displeased with the situation. _I really hope goth girl can do better._

Sam drew and grinned because she was about to turn things around. "I sacrifice my face down monster, Paulina's face down monster and Goldd to summon Wicked Dreadroute (ATK 4000)," Sam said as the monster's she selected disappeared and were replaced by a winged humanoid demon with green skin and steel claws.

"You made all those tributes just to summon a creature weaker than mine," Aragon said as he shook his said. "Such a waste."

"Not so," Sam countered. "Attack points aren't everything. Wicked Dreadroute cuts the attack strength of all other monster's by half," she explained as a dark energy surrounded Mobios and Five Headed Dragon which did just that. "Wicked Dreadroute, attack," Sam ordered. Her creature created a sphere of darkness around Five Headed Dragon. The sphere receded in on Aragon's mammoth dragon, which survived the assault.

"What just happened?" Sam asked. "Why wasn't your creature destroyed?"

"Five Headed Dragon can't be destroyed by any monster that isn't light attribute, like your Wicked Dreadroute," Aragon explained. "However, I still take battle damage," he said as his life points reduced to 100.

"I believe it is my turn now," he said as he drew. "I sacrifice Five Headed Dragon to summon Kaiser Glider (ATK 2400, reduced to 1200)." Five Headed Dragon vanished and was replaced by a gold winged dragon.

"What are you going to do with that?" Paulina asked. "It's not nearly powerful enough to help you."

"It doesn't need to be," Aragon said with a grin. "I play Overload Fusion. I remove all my Cyberdark monsters from play to summon a new one: Cyberdark Dragon (ATK 1000, reduced to 500)." A monster that had Cyberdark Keel's serpentine body, Cyberdark Edge's wings and Cyberdark Horn for a head appeared in front of Aragon.

"Like it's component monsters, Cyberdark Dragon can equip a dragon from my graveyard to itself," Aragon continued. "But unlike those monsters, my new one can select a dragon of any level: such as Five Headed Dragon."

Aragon's gigantic creature reappeared on the field and was attached to Cyberdark Dragon, raising the mechanical monster's attack strength to 5500. "Oh no," Paulina said as she realized that it was over for her and Sam.

"This has been enjoyable, but all good things must come to an end," Aragon said. "Cyberdark Dragon, end this," he ordered. His empowered creature released a sonic shock wave that destroyed Wicked Dreadroute and the remainder of Sam and Paulina's life points.

"God damn it," Sam cursed as she began vanishing, then turned to Danny. "It's all up to you now. Please stop this asshole. I'll see you again when you do."

"If you save me, I'll take back that stuff I said about you earlier," Paulina pleaded right before she and Sam finished disappearing.

"You're going to pay for that," Danny said while glaring at Aragon.

"Let us see if you can make me," the dragonic prince responded with a grin.


	23. Chapter 23

Danny and Aragon drew their opening hands and began with 4000 life points each. "I shall go first," Aragon said as he drew. "I play a monster face down and end my turn."

"Very well," Danny said as he drew. "I summon Destiny Hero Diamond Dude and use his effect. I take a look at the top card of my deck," he said as he picked it up, revealing it to be the Shield and Sword spell card. "Since this is a spell, I put it in my graveyard and can use it on my next turn. Now I have him attack your monster." The crystalline Destiny Hero charged into battle and struck Aragon's monster, revealing it to be Masked Dragon which was destroyed.

"Now I get to summon a new dragon to the field, such as Armed Dragon Level 3 (ATK 1200)," Aragon said as a small red dragon with spikes appeared in front of him, then drew as his turn began. "Now that it has been on the field for a turn, my creature evolves into its Level 5 form." Armed Dragon Level 3 transformed into its larger form.

"Armed Dragon Level 5, attack Diamond Dude," Aragon ordered. His dragon unleashed a roar of red energy that annihilated Diamond Dude and reduced Danny's life points to 3000. "Since it just destroyed a monster in battle it evolves further into its Level 7 form," he explained as Armed Dragon did just that.

"Not bad. Now let's see what I can do," Danny said as he drew. "I activate Shield and Sword. For this turn, all monsters have their attack and defense points swapped," Danny explained as Armed Dragon Level 7's attack strength became 1000. "Now I summon Destiny Hero Dunker (ATK 1200, switched to 1700)," he said as he brought forth a man with black clothes and dreadlocks. "I use Dunker's special effect. I discard a card from my hand and you lose 500 life points."

Danny discarded his card. This made Dunker leap into the air, swipe his arm downward and sent a shock wave that lowered Aragon's life points to 3500.

"The card I sent to the graveyard was Destiny Hero Malicious," Danny began. "I remove it from play so I can summon a new Malicious (ATK 800, remains 800) from my deck to the field," he said as he did just that. "Dunker, attack Armed Dragon," he ordered. Dunker charged forward and hit Armed dragon with a punch that destroyed his target. Danny followed through by having Malicious attack directly. The result of both battles left Aragon with 2000 life points.

"My turn," Aragon said as he drew. "I summon Cyberdark Horn and I think you know what happens next," he said as he summoned his monster.

"Unfortunately," Danny said as Masked Dragon emerged on the field. Cyberdark Horn attached itself to the creature and gained a new attack strength of 2200.

"Cyberdark Horn, attack Dunker," Aragon ordered. His monster fired a blast of brown energy that obliterated Destiny Hero Dunker and sent Danny's life points down to 2000. Danny drew as his turn began.

"I sacrifice my last copy of Malicious to summon Destiny Hero Double Dude," Danny said as his demonic Destiny Heroes vanished from the field and was replaced by his new creature. "Now I play Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Masked Dragon." A powerful gust of destroyed Masked Dragon and restored Cyberdark Horn's attack points to 800.

Danny had Double Dude attack Cyberdark Horn. The Destiny Hero destroyed the evil machine with a strike of his cain. Danny had him attack again, making Double change into his monstrous form and strike Aragon directly. The result of both battles left the tyrannical prince with 800 life points. He drew.

"I summon Cyberdark Edge," Aragon said as he brought out the creature, which was equipped and empowered by Masked Dragon like its predecessor. It attacked Double Dude with a barrage of sickle shaped air blasts, lowering Danny's life points to 800. "Now I play Sebek's Blessing. This spell increases my life points by the amount you just lost," Aragon said as his life points rose to 2000.

Danny drew as his turn began and the two Double Dude Tokens appeared before him. "I summon Destiny Hero Defender and sacrifice all of my monsters to summon Destiny Hero Dogma," he said as he brought forth one of his most powerful monsters. "Dogma, attack Cyberdark Edge," he ordered. Dogma struck Edge with his sword, destroying Masked Dragon and lowering both Edge's attack strength and Aragon's life points to 800. Danny ended his turn and Aragon drew. "Now Dogma cuts your life points in half," he said as Aragon's life points reduced to 400.

"That won't matter very soon," Aragon said. "I play Foolish Burial and send Cyberdark Keel from my deck to the graveyard. Now I play Overload Fusion. I remove all my Cyberdark monsters from play to summon Cyberdark Dragon." Cyberdark Edge vanished from the field and was replaced by Cyberdark Dragon. "Now I equip my monster with Armed Dragon Level 7," he said as the fully evolved Armed Dragon appeared on the field and Cyberdark Dragon attached to it, raising its attack strength to 3800.

"And Cyberdark Dragon has another effect," Aragon said with a grin. "This didn't come up in my duel with your female companions, but Cyberdark Dragon gains 100 attack points for each monster in my graveyard." With three monsters in his graveyard, Cyberdark Dragon's power further increased to 4100. "Now I will destroy your Dogma," Aragon said as Cyberdark Dragon fired a powerful sonic screech that obliterated Dogma and left Danny with a mere 100 life points left.

_Oh great, _Danny thought. _I have only a handful of life points left and Aragon's got a monster with over 4000 attack points. There is one card in my deck that can win the duel for me, but I need to draw for it. _Danny drew from his deck and received the card he had been hoping for.

"I summon Destiny Hero Celestial (ATK 1600)," Danny said as he brought forth a man who had two large, crescent shaped blades attached to his back. "Celestial, attack Cyberdark Dragon."

"Ha," Aragon mocked. "I see you've finally decided to give up."

"Not at all," Danny replied with a grin. "Celestial has a special effect: when he attacks a monster that has an equip spell attached to it, the spell is destroyed and my opponent loses 500."

"Drat," Aragon said as he released that the duel was over him. Armed Dragon Level 7 left the field and Aragon's life points were depleted. Rather than showing any signs of agonized defeat, he only grinned.

"Do you know what you've just done?" Aragon asked.

"I defeated you and stopped the Chaos Emperor Dragon from being released," Danny said with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. "Didn't I?"

"Not even remotely," Aragon said while shaking his head. "Ever since you and your cohorts arrived in this realm, many strong souls have been sent to the Chaos Emperor Dragon."

upon hearing this, images of all the duels flashed through Danny's mind. All of his friends (and not friends) as well as Aragon's minions had been vanquished and sent to the evil dragon as nourishment. _Fantastic, _Danny thought sarcastically. _In trying to stop the Chaos Emperor Dragon, I may have sped up its arrival._

"Now the mighty spirit is only one strong soul away from returning," Aragon continuing. "I would have preferred to have you be the final sacrifice needed, but this outcome will work as well," he said before completely vanishing.

"This is not good," Danny said.


	24. Chapter 24

There was a loud rumbling followed by a explosion from underneath the ground. From the crater emerged a creature Danny had hoped to never see first hand: the Chaos Emperor Dragon. _He doesn't look as big as when I saw him in Clockwork's history lesson, _Danny noted. _He's still big enough to eat me as a snack. How did the Egyptians ever deal with something like this?_

Danny remembered that Clockwork showed him how the Egyptians summoned creatures of their own to battle the rampaging dragon he was now facing. "I hope this works," Danny said as he searched through his deck and found his most powerful Destiny Heroes. He placed the cards on the arms of his duel disk.

"Destiny Heroes Plasma, Dogma, Dreadmaster," Danny cried out the names of his monsters as they appeared in front of him.

"Those puny creatures won't save you from me," the dragon said in Aragon's voice.

"Is that you Aragon?" Danny asked.

"No," the Chaos Emperor Dragon answered. "I am merely using the voice of my latest acquisition to communicate with you. While I may not be as powerful as I was before being imprisoned, I can easily vanquish you. And without you, the human world that has forgotten the ways of sorcery and mysticism will burn beneath my wings."

"Not if I stop you here," Danny said. "Plasma, attack from above." Plasma flew upward, spread his wings and unleashed a barrage of red energy bursts at the Chaos Emperor. While his monster was battling, Danny searched through his deck for any cards that might help him.

The dust settled from Plasma's attack and the dragon appeared to be unscathed. "Dogma, Dreadmaster: charge," Danny ordered and his creatures did as instructed. The Chaos Emperor Dragon fired a stream of obsidian fire at the oncoming monsters.

"I equip Dogma with Heavy Storm Blade," Danny said as he played the card and three blades that were in a circle appeared of Dogma's right arm. The Destiny Hero stopped and began rotating the blades, creating a strong barrier of wing that stopped the fiery assault. While Dogma was occupying the Chaos Emperor Dragon's attention, Dreadmaster side stepped the flame attack and continued his charge.

Dreadmaster punched the dragon in the chest. This ceased the flame breath and Dogma went to join his comrade. Chaos Emperor Dragon slashed Dreadmaster with its claw. It brought back the other claw for a killing blow, but was interrupted by Dogma slashing its neck. Plasma followed through with another energy barrage, this one appearing to do some damage.

The dragon bit Dogma and destroyed the Destiny Hero. Then it disposed of Dreadmaster with a powerful swipe of its tail. With them out of the way, the Chaos Emperor turned its attention on Plasma and unleashed a stream of dark fire.

"I equip Plasma With D-Shield," Danny said as he played the trap and Plasma was surrounded by a force field as he took a defensive stance. The force field protected Plasma as Danny gazed at the Chaos Emperor Dragon for some kind of vulnerability. He spotted what looked like a glowing jewel on the Dragon's head.

"That looks important," Danny said as he brought his hands together, formed an ecto blast and fired. The blast hit Danny's intended target and created cracks in the jewel. Light poured from the cracks and Tucker and Vlad emerged from the dragon and landed near the dragon's feet.

"That could have gone better," Tucker groaned as he stood up and noticed Vlad. "Just my luck: I get out and you come with me."

"You have much bigger problems than me at the moment," Vlad said as he motioned Tucker to look up. He did so and saw how close he was to the Chaos Emperor Dragon. Both of them ran to get some distance between them and the creature that had devoured them. With that out of the way, Tucker decided to help Danny.

"Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman," Tucker cried out as he brought forth a creature he hadn't played yet: a winged man wearing steel armor who gave off a radiant aura. Flare Wingman conjured a sphere of green energy in his hands and hurled it at the malicious dragon, making it cease its attack on Destiny Hero Plasma. "Flare Wingman, go for the jewel on its head," Tucker directed.

The winged Elemental Hero charged towards his target and punched the jewel. The Chaos Emperor Dragon retaliated by biting Shining Flare Wingman's chest, destroying him. More cracks manifested in the jewel and all the souls that had been absorbed by the evil dragon since Danny and his ensemble set foot in the ghost zone were released and landed around their former master.

"You vile, mind altering reptile," Skulker said angrily. "You're going to pay. Nobody takes control of the ghost zone's greatest hunter," he said as he brought forth Cyber End Dragon.

"And the same goes for the ghostly master of technology," Technus said as he summoned Ancient Gear Golem.

"You'll have to wait till I'm through with him," Spectra cut in as she brought forth Black Luster Soldier.

"What she said," Bertrand chimed in as he summoned Master of Oz.

"You'll all have to take your turns after me," Desiree said as she called on the power of Exodia the Forbidden One and brought forth a towering orange giant that was dressed like someone from ancient Egypt who was forming an orb of energy in his hands. "This is what you get for defiling my mind. Exodia, obliterate!"

"Guess again," the Chaos Emperor Dragon said. Suddenly, all of the creatures his former soul collectors had summoned began to fade, then disappear entirely. When they disappeared, so did the decks and amulets of their owners. "I gave you the shadow magic abilities to summon those creatures. Did you really think I would allow you to use those same abilities against me?"

"You don't have that kind of control over our shadow magic," Jazz said as she summoned Super Conductor Tyranno.

"I'm going to enjoy this," Star said as she called out Shinato, King of a Higher Plane.

"Prepare to die, you overgrown iguana," Paulina said as she brought out Levia Dragon Deadelus.

"I'm going to enjoy this," Sam said as she summoned Wicked Dreadroute.

"Time to kick ass," Kwan said as he brought forth Gilford the Lighting.

Super Conductor Tyranno fired a blast of lightning from his mouth. Levia Dragon did the same with a torrent of water. Shinato fired unleashed a ring of light. Gilford swung his sword and sent out a wave of lightning. Wicked Dreadroute launched an orb of obsidian energy. All the attacks converged on their target and made contact. With so many souls having left him, the Chaos Emperor Dragon didn't have the strength to withstand the attack and was destroyed forever. The ancient and malicious creature exploded and many streams of light came from him and scattered outward.

"All the souls are returning," Danny said as he saw the Chaos Emperor Dragon's evil be undone.


	25. Chapter 25

All those freed ghosts that were also Danny's enemies looked at him begrudgingly. As much they disliked Danny, they did enjoy their freedom. They decided to fly off to their own business without starting a fight as a way of showing gratitude.

"Where'd that bastard Vlad go?" Tucker asked as he looked around for the middle-aged half ghost.

"He must have slipped away when no one was looking," Danny said. Just then, a portal opened up in front of his group and out stepped Clockwork.

"Who's he?" Star asked.

"That's Clockwork, the ghost of time," Danny answered. "He's also the one who gave us these," he said as he held up his amulet.

"And you have put them to get use," the temporal ghost said with a grin.

"Wait," Dora said as she approached the group. "Where is my brother?"

"As the last sacrifice the Chaos Dragon Emperor needed," Clockwork began, "Aragon's spirit was entangled with its own. He was destroyed along with the beast."

"I see," Dora said as she looked saddened. "I know he wasn't a great person and he brought this fate on himself, but he was still my brother. Goodbye," she said as she departed.

"You have all done the world a great service by ridding it of the Chaos Emperor Dragon once and for all," Clockwork said to the teens. "Now I must ask for the amulets back."

"Can we keep the cards?" Star asked and Clockwork nodded yes. "Sweet," she said as she extracted her deck and removed the amulet. This caused her to return to her normal clothes.

The rest of the group followed suit. They returned the amulets to Clockwork and pocketed their decks. "Thank you," the temporal specter said as he vanished.

-----------------------------------

Two days had passed since Danny and his friends had destroyed the Chaos Emperor Dragon. A few things of interest had happened since then.

Immediately after the battle, the space propelling jet back that Danny had once used against Technus had disappeared from Axiam Labs. Danny figured that Vlad must have taken it to continue his self-imposed exile in space. Since Vlad hadn't been seen since his return in the ghost zone, this backed the theory up.

While Danny and his group were saving the world from an ancient mystical evil, Dash had tried to impose his will on an Asian girl who had recently moved into the neighborhood. What he didn't count on was that this girl knew how to take care of herself and her dad was a cop. Dash was now in Juvie awaiting trial for sexual assault. This made Paulina immensely happy.

Danny was currently in Tucker's room, perusing his friend's collection of Duel Monster cards for any good additions to his deck. Sam stepped into the room to check on him.

"How's the search going," she asked.

"Pretty good," Danny answered. "I've found a few good cards that would fit well into my deck. I especially like this," Danny said as he showed Sam the Grinder Golem monster card. "This is perfect for creating the tribute fodder I need for busting out Dogma or Plasma."

"It was very generous of Tucker to let you look through his collection," Sam said. "Where is Tucker anyway?"

"He's at my house," Danny said. "Jazz wanted to talk to him. I think it has something to do with how he defeated Bertrand for her."

"Danny," Sam said tentatively as she tried to figure out the best way to tell him that Jazz and Tucker might be talking about romantic matters.

"I don't want to think about it," Danny said, having already reached that conclusion. "What I do want to do is test how these new additions work in my deck. Interested?"

"All right," Sam said as she Danny left the room to begin a friendly duel.


End file.
